


Final Warning

by MissMedussa



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Corporal Punishment, Dominant Hux, Eventual Romance, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Hux Has No Chill, Reader-Insert, Smut, Spanking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-28 07:46:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6320965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissMedussa/pseuds/MissMedussa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You are a clumsy Officer in training who continuously finds herself under the scrutiny of General Hux and after a few too many screw ups, he finally loses his patience with you.....</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I found that there's not nearly enough Hux/ Reader fics on here so I thought I'd give writing one a go for myself :)  
> I wrote this pretty late at night and I was half asleep, so that's my excuse if it is a pile of rubbish haha, hope you guys enjoy anyway!
> 
> ( L/N )- Your last name

It was late in the evening and you had finally finished a grueling eight hour shift which had been followed by two hours of shadowing and training, so it was safe to say that you were starving and exhausted. Once you had been dismissed for the day, you somehow had managed to drag your fatigued body through the winding corridors on the _Finalizer_ from the control room all the way to the cafeteria, which were a great distance apart, much to your dismay.

The irritating distance that you had to walk after a long shift, only then to eat the crappy food supplied at the cafeteria, pissed you off to put it lightly. So often times you would skip dinner entirely, opting instead to snack on the rations that you had managed to squirrel away in your quarters. Tonight though, you were forced to embark upon the tedious journey as your own personal supply of food was cleared out and you were far too hungry to wait until the next morning to eat. Just how hungry you were in that moment was proven by the fact that when you approached the cafeteria doors, the normally wretched smell that wafted through the hallways actually smelled good to you.

You quickly selected your food items from the small and grim selection on offer and gazed over the room, looking for somewhere to sit. You balanced the thin metal tray in your slightly shaking hands the best that you could manage, with each careful, calculated step you took across the mess hall, the contents of your tray shifted slightly from side to side, threatening to crash to the floor and spill at any moment.

This was the first and **last** time you would get soup, it hadn’t even looked that good and it was certainly not worth the hassle it had taken to keep it steady all the way to your table on the opposite side of the room.

You had fixated your gaze on the hot, lumpy and reddish liquid that swirled around in the large white bowl. You had almost scowled at it, as though daring it to spill out over the confines of the bowl and land all over your new, clean uniform.

To make matters worse for you, the cafeteria was bustling and was entering in to it's most busy part of the day. The large room was filled almost to capacity with different levels of employee's of the First Order, from Troopers to Officers. So dropping your tray, or spilling the contents all over yourself would definitely not go unnoticed among your fellow employees. Making a spectacle of yourself was something you most definitely wanted to avoid doing. You were already in a pretty bad mood because of how tired you were, so you didn't want to make an ass of yourself on top of that. 

 

You had only been an employee of the First Order for just over a month and already you seemed to have the reputation of being something of a clumsy idiot among the rest of the staff aboard the vessel. This, along with the fact that so far you weren't exactly performing to your full potential in your new job as an Officer in training, had circulated quickly and you almost immediately found yourself under the radar of a certain terrifying red headed General.

 It was not as if in your short time aboard the _Finalizer_ you had done anything _exceptionally_   wrong, you hadn’t at all, but it quickly became evident to you that that was entirely besides the point. Any errors, whether they were small or large, were taken rather seriously here. It was also more to do with the fact that, for some reason, you seemed to completely lack focus which very much reflected in your overall performance.

Being anything other than exceptional was of course considered a failure, especially when your superior, General Hux, was such an obsessive perfectionist who lived and breathed the First Order. When it came to handling and executing each task presented to him, he did it to the utmost perfection. Always going above and beyond to ensure everything was done correctly. This was the standard he held every employee to and you were no exception to that rule.

His displeasure towards you had been made clear to you quite early on, after yet another report of your inadequacy was relayed to him by one of the Officers you had been shadowing, highlighting the fact that you were proving to be incompetent in the most simplistic of tasks, which you felt was somewhat of an over exaggeration.

It was not as though you were _bad_ at your job, academically you had surpassed all other students at the academy you had attended. Furthermore you had been the one most had predicted would go on to do great things. No  ~~ **you** weren’t bad at your job,~~  General Hux’s standards for excellence were just ridiculously high.

You had soon realised why he was so feared throughout the ranks. His mere presence alone exuded so much power, it commanded so much respect and screamed that his authority was never one to be questioned or scoffed at. The man's face always seemed to be twisted in a permanent look of contempt as though he found absolutely no pleasure in life and that everything around him was just a continuous string of disappointments. 

His appearance was almost a complete reflection of what you had imagined the organised, workaholic would look like. Although the fact that he was very attractive had come as something of a surprise to you. He was clad head to toe in a black uniform that always seemed to be impossibly clean and crease free, it clung to his tall, lithe form perfectly as though it was his second skin. The General's fiery red hair was combed neatly back out of his pale face and it always appeared to remain that way, not a strand dared to fall out of place. It was hard to imagine that he could ever be casual, even when no one was around to see him, you often you wondered if a sleeping Hux would still manage to look so formal and serious. You figured it must have been stressful to maintain that level of excellence all of the time and it was something you most certainly did not envy of him.

 

The first time the General reprimanded you, you had only been under his employment for slightly over a week, which made the fact that you already had to be disciplined all the more humiliating.That, mixed with the fear of being under Hux’s stern and merciless gaze, had made you want to just run back to your quarters and cocoon yourself within the safe confines of your duvet. 

It was almost unheard of, that someone would manage to mess up in such a short time, but somehow you had managed it. Your indiscretion was hardly anything of spectacular consequence, you hadn't backed up some files on ship repairs and had managed to delete the only remaining copies, which set back work progress by about an hour.Nothing major, but time efficiency was of course something the General was very sensitive to, so your mistake was a red flag to him immediately.

Being reprimanded had gone just about as well as you had expected it to. You had of course found the one to one experience with the General to be completely terrifying. He didn't once raise his voice to you though. No, he was much too professional for that. It was not something he needed to do anyway, his voice, although calm and collected made it perfectly clear that underneath his professional exterior, he was furious that you were already causing him so many unnecessary issues.

You remembered when you had walked into his office that first time, he had had his back to you, his eyes fixated upon his data pad, flicking through reports casually. During the few fleeting moments that you had waited for him to turn around and acknowledge your existence, you found your eyes wandering curiously over his uniform clad body. Up until that point, you had only observed the fearsome man from a distance and you had found him pretty hot you had to admit, but you had a whole new appreciation for the man up close. 

He had looked over in your direction before you had a chance to take your eyes off of him and there was no doubt in your mind that he knew you had been checking him out. A deep blush had crept up on your face from the realisation that you had been caught, fear and humiliation were most definitely your leading emotions at that point. You had expected him to reprimand you for obvious inappropriate behaviour towards your superior, but instead he just cocked an eyebrow at you and his face displayed a look of mild confusion. It did not last long however, as soon he had turned to face you, his normal disgruntled expression returned and thankfully no more was mentioned about the incident. You had thought perhaps that maybe he had not made the connection that you had been admiring him after all.

 

It seemed as though you were constantly in and out of General Hux's office after that, no matter how minor your mistakes seemed to be, he would be alerted to your short comings and you would once again wind up on the receiving end of his disapproving stare. You were unsure as to whether you were self sabotaging your work just so you could be in the same room as him again, but at the same time, the man terrified you so you also wanted to avoid him like the plague. It was a rather confusing situation that you found yourself in. If your subconscious mind was making you screw up on purpose, you really hoped that it would just stop already as there was only so much of Hux's blatant disappointment in you that you could take.

The man had made it quite clear to you that the only reason you had not been terminated from your post was that you had great potential and could, with the right guidance, be a great asset to the First Order. Though after you had ended up in his office for the fourth time, (for spilling coffee all over yourself and a console) you could tell his patience for you was growing scarily thin.

The only punishment you had ever received for your failures were a few hours of added overtime, which you had been given for destroying the console and this, you considered, was most definitely getting let off lightly. Colleagues of yours agreed that you were getting away with murder, that Hux was not being as harsh on you as he had been on others in the past, which baffled you as you had no reason to believe that Hux would ever give you preferential treatment. It was unheard of. The General had never been anything other than professional with you, you were by no means friends even in the context of the workplace. Other than having him bark orders at you daily or tell you off like an insolent child for your mistakes, you had never even spoken with him. Not even polite chit chat or small talk.

Maybe it appeared that you were being let off lightly, for the time being at least, but you knew it wouldn't be long before you infuriated the man to the point of being on the receiving end of some horrific punishment. Hux had more or less hinted towards that in your last meeting. His cold gaze had bore into you as he assured you with a low growl ,that the next time you made such a mistake, you would not fare so well. His parting words had sent shivers down your spine, so you had been making a conscious effort not to screw up and to stay the hell out of his way. No matter how much your body seemed to crave the thought of being alone in the same room as him, you knew you had to avoid him at all costs. This had been going well for all of four days, until disaster once again struck as you knew that eventually it would. 

* * *

 

 

Your table was finally only a few meters away, you breathed a small sigh of relief and you almost relaxed for a moment, thinking that perhaps this time you were going to make it through a potentially disastrous moment incident free. You looked up finally from your tray for a few seconds and you became aware that your current predicament had caught the attention of a small table of Troopers who snickered at you with amusement. Your face had flushed a deep red from the realisation that you were being watched, that your reputation for being a klutz was not lost on the Troopers as they eagerly waited for you to make an idiot of yourself in some way.

You had found over your short time working here, that the Troopers could be total assholes, especially when they were sitting in with a group of their friends. Newbies in particular seemed to get the majority of their attention and they took joy in tormenting them in any way that they could. Fortunately you had managed to stay under their radar for the most part, being kind and polite to them whenever you could to avoid any negative feelings, but you had known that eventually you would end up being the brunt of their dumb jokes and pranks.

The last stretch was the most difficult part, you had to maneuver your way between a cluster of tables that were located inconveniently close together, while people rushed hurriedly past you. They moved back and forth from their seats, taking little notice of you as you narrowly missed being hit by elbows and getting pushed roughly from side to side.

 

You had almost past the last giggling Storm Trooper, your eyes dropped back down to your tray to avoid the irritating mans mocking gaze, but not before you noticed a glint of mischief flash across his features. He had nudged his colleague to get his attention, needing a spectator to witness what he no doubt thought was going to be an act of comedic genius. The other man caught his gaze and chuckled knowingly, his eyes resting on you in amusement, eagerly awaiting the show. By the time you had figured out what the man had been planning though, it was already too late.

He was no longer satisfied to wait for you to screw up on your own, so the bored Trooper decided to take matters into his own hands. His foot flew out in front of you, the tripping hazard being placed in your way with such perfect timing that there was no way you could have gone about avoiding it. You were screwed.

You let out a sharp cry as you felt your legs falling out from underneath you, no longer being able to support your weight as your body plummeted forward towards the ground. The metal tray flew out of your hands immediately, keeping the soup steady was no longer of importance as your hands instinctively flew to the ground in order to avoid taking the blunt impact of the fall straight to your face.

A pained yelp exited your mouth as your hands and knees connected with the grey floor abruptly and not long after, your dishes joined you. They clattered loudly by your side, so if everyone had not already noticed you fall, they most certainly would have been made aware of it by this point.

Anger boiled up inside of you and heat rose in your cheeks from sheer embarrassment as you lay in a pathetic heap on the floor, surrounded by your dishes and slightly coated in hot, vegetable soup.

It took all of the self control that you possessed not to get up from the floor and jab a spoon in that asshole Troopers eye! You were pretty damn sick of being the laughing stock of the _Finalizer_ , you knew it was probably just harmless fun and he hadn't meant any malicious intent, but always being on the receiving end of the joke had started to really grate on you. No one, it seemed, took you seriously.

You waited for what seemed like an eternity for the hysterical laughter that was no doubt going to follow your humiliating display, to begin. Then, after a few torturous moments when it had not come, you had lifted your face slightly , which was flushed scarlet from embarrassment and rage, out of the soup puddle on the floor in an attempt to see what was going on.

 

That's when you realised that the cafeteria had grown eerily quiet, aside from a low growl that seemed to be emanating from above you. You had started to look up, precisely in front of your face were a pair of black boots so shiny that you could see your own face staring back at you in the reflection. Your heart began to pound loudly in your chest, the beats were so rapid that it felt as though your heart could burst free from your rib cage at any moment. Your breathing was low and shallow as you worked up the courage to continue moving your terrified gaze upwards.

Panic had begun to set in rather rapidly as your wide eyes followed up from the black boots, to a pair of thin, but slightly muscular and long legs. They then proceeded all the way up until your own eyes were met with the furious, blue gaze of an individual who looked as though he was about to pounce on top of you and tear your head off. Of all the people you had to inadvertently throw your dinner over, _of course_ it had to be General Hux.

He glared down at you furiously, his normally immaculate hair had fallen loose over his face and dripped with red, chunky soup. The ordinarily spotless uniform he always managed to maintain so well, was splashed with heavy douses of the thick liquid and caused the black ensemble to look like some kind of hideous abstract painting. Hux's typically pale face had become flushed with rage, his nostrils flared as his anger quickly consumed him. He clenched his gloved fists tightly into a ball, his piercing blue eyes fixated upon your own, the intensity of the stare was enough to chill you to the bone. You had seen the General angry before, but not like this and most certainly not directed entirely at you. Normally you did not scare easily, but the General had an amazing ability to wrack your entire body with fear, which was annoying as you hated to appear weak.

You had somehow managed to coax your shaking legs up onto the floor, so that you could stand in front of him, the man was so close to you that you could almost feel his warm breath ghost across your face. As you tried to back up away from him slightly , he quickly closed the distance you had managed to create between you and his tall form loomed over your smaller one menacingly, his darkened gaze watching you as though daring you to run from him. As much as you truly wanted to do just that, you knew that would be the biggest mistake you could possibly make.

 

 

"General Hux! I..I'm so sorry!" You managed to stammer between shallow breaths.

The man did not reply and he had instead continued to stare at you with utter contempt. You had looked around hurriedly for something to wipe away at the mess you had created on the mans uniform, you knew that wouldn't help you erase what you had done at that point, but you knew that you had to try and do something.

There were a small pile of white napkins stacked haphazardly on the table where the Trooper who had tripped you sat. The man had his face lowered, hiding it behind his hand the best that he could as he concentrated his gaze upon the table, not daring to look up at you. Knowing full well that the wrath you were about to face from General Hux was all a result of his stupid, careless joke. No doubt he was terrified that you were going to drop him in it too, if you were to explain how the asshole had purposefully tripped you up, he would be facing a world of shit because of it. You knew better than to rat him in though, life on board the ship after doing something like that would not be worth living. Not only would you be known as a klutz, but also a snitch and there was no worse thing to be. 

You grabbed a fistful of napkins and reached out with one of your trembling hands to wipe at the front of the mans uniform, but before you had managed to get too close to him, his own hand shot out and roughly grabbed your wrist, holding you in place.

 

 

"How  _dare_ you attempt to touch a superior without expressed permission (L/N)!" He hissed at you, his voice laced with venom as his already painful grip on your wrist tightened considerably more.

His vice like grasp on you did not lessen as you struggled to find an answer to defend your actions, you should have known better than to try and touch the man, but doing nothing seemed equally as stupid.

" I'm so sorry sir....I...I just wanted to help....fix it."

The General looked his uniform over, examining the extensive damaged you had managed to inflict on his usually perfect ensemble, his free hand ran through his soggy hair, pushing the loose, ginger strands back out from his face. You knew that the extent of his fury over the situation that had unfurled stemmed from the fact that you had made him look ridiculous in front of a room full of his inferiors and that it was you who had messed up yet again after he had warned you about your behaviour only a couple of short days before. It was an accident and you were certain that he knew this, but regardless of how and why it had happened, you would be punished for it, if not terminated from your post. It would seem like an overreaction to most people, but you knew that this small act was just the final straw for him after all the grief you had caused for him over the last couple of weeks.

The ginger General quickly regained his composure, his anger only getting in the way of his professionalism for a short moment. Unlike your other superiors, Kylo Ren in particular, General Hux was not known for having a wild temper, but this made him no less intimidating to you. In fact it only scared you more, at least if he shouted at you, you would have a better idea about what was to come, but no, he remained eerily cold and stoic. You almost missed his short lived anger.

" Your help is not required (L/N), I can assure you that you have done quite enough already."

Before he released his grip on you, he held you in place a few inches from him, his eyes surveyed you and surprisingly his gaze that had only moments ago been filled with utter contempt for you, seemed to soften as he examined your face more closely. His eyes trialed from your wide, terrified doe eyes and continued down until he noticed the subtle trembling of your full lips, it looked as though he was almost saddened that he had managed to instill such fear within in you. You could not be certain of it though, the man was rather difficult to read.

"Report to my office at 8am sharp tomorrow. Do not be late. I shall inform you of the disciplinary action I intend to take then." 

 

You nodded your head quickly, before remembering to instead acknowledge him verbally with as much confidence as you could, " Yes Sir." 

 He took one last look at you before he turned on his heels to exit the room, he looked around him in annoyance at the sea of faces who eyed him with too much interest for his liking.

"Break is over. All of you get back to work immediately." He barked the order at them, causing a few people to jump slightly in their seats, before scrambling to their feet quickly to do exactly as he had instructed.

Once you were certain that the General had most definitely exited the room, you managed to let yourself breathe again. He had not dismissed you right there, which could have been taken as a good sign, but it also made you wonder if he perhaps had some worse form of punishment in mind. What that punishment would entail, you had no idea, but you knew it could not be good.

You wiped the worst of the food off of your uniform with the napkins that were still in your hand and then turned to glare at the Storm Trooper who had caused you to smack into the General. The Trooper had put his helmet back on and had attempted to slip away from you before you had the chance to notice. He wasn't fast enough though. You made yourself feel a bit better by letting off some steam on him with a few choice curse words and a string of creative insults. The Trooper had said nothing in response and had meekly scurried away from you pretty quickly after that.

Releasing some of your rage had been good while it had lasted, but the feeling was immediately replaced with panic and worry again as the Generals words played over and over in your head. The words had given you no clue as to what you were going to face when you met with him in the morning. You recalled the unnerving series of looks he had shot in your direction throughout the entire ordeal and you cursed slightly under your breath that you had allowed him to see just how much he had scared you. Whatever he had planned for you, you knew you had every reason to dread being alone in his office with him the following morning. You may have been exhausted, but it was safe to say that you would be getting no sleep that night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh so sorry, I was supposed to post this a couple of days ago, but I had a pretty crazy weekend, so I didn't have the chance . If there are any mistakes, don't hesitate to let me know. Anyway, here it is now , enjoy! :)
> 
> As a side note, it was pointed out to me that Hux's eyes are actually blue, not green, which I had been describing them as in the first chapter. I've since corrected it, just in case you are wondering why his eyes are a totally different colour in the second chapter.
> 
> Thanks for reading, for the comments and of course the kudos!
> 
> (E/C) -eye colour

Sleep had evaded you for most of the night like you had known that it would. You had tossed and turned fitfully on your soft mattress, unable to find any kind of comfort in the usual safe haven that was your bed. Occasionally you would feel your eye-lids grow unbearably heavy from exhaustion and for a few blissful moments you drifted off into a light doze, but your body did not grant you that for long, for just as suddenly as you drifted off, you jolted awake again.

The normally stable temperature in your quarters had seemed to fluctuate all night, changing from what felt like a day on Jakku to a sub-zero night on the Starkiller base. The majority of the grueling night you had spent laying on your side, staring anxiously at the bold red numbers on your bedside clock that flashed at you menacingly, reminding you with each minute that pressed relentlessly onward, just how close you were to coming face to face with doom. Losing the ability to sleep was hardly surprising ,as you were certain that no right minded person would have been able to rest peacefully knowing that their fate was going to be decided within a mere few hours by the most cold and emotionally detached man aboard the _Finalizer_.

 

You watched anxiously as the red numbers finally settled upon 06:30, a loud screeching noise had sounded out and filled the small confines of your quarters, alerting you to the fact that it was time to get up and face the dreadful music. Never would you have described yourself as a morning person, but on that morning in particular you were much more irritable than usual and you almost felt sorry for anyone that would dare to piss you off.

It took all of the will power that you possessed to unravel yourself from the soft material of your duvet and reluctantly slip out from your bed, your bare feet hit the cold floor and for a few minutes you sat upright, resting your heavy head in your hands, trying to get yourself motivated to go and have a shower. You were so tired that you almost found yourself wondering if your job was even worth you getting out of bed for at that point and you gave serious consideration to the idea of just cocooning yourself back up and forgetting about the day ahead. If Hux was pissed at you now, you could just imagine how red his normally pale face would go when he found out that you decided to ditch his disciplinary meeting for the much more appealing option of sleeping all day. You knew that your life would not be worth living if you pulled a stunt like that, but hey, you couldn't be punished for thinking it.

A small sigh escaped your lips as you relived the embarrassment of the incident with the General from the night before. Images of his pale face covered in soup, scowling down at you like an adult would scowl at a misbehaving child, continuously flashed in your mind. If it had been someone other than him that you had marinated in soup against their will, it may have been a slightly amusing sight to behold , but when you recalled how he had almost bared his white teeth at you in anger, you knew that there was nothing funny about it. How the hell did things like that keep happening to you? You were certain that you hadn’t earned yourself enough bad karma to deserve any of it.

 

 

All you had wanted since you had arrived on the _Finalizer_ was to keep your head down, work hard and secure your position as an Officer, but the Universe appeared to have more complex and much less appealing plans for you in its place.  
It had always been known to you that you were slightly less focused than others around you, but up until now, this had not presented much of an issue for you. Now though, this lack of focus appeared to have escalated to a ridiculous level since the start of your life aboard the vessel. You had a pretty good idea as to why that was, but it pained you to admit it to yourself. It was so inappropriate, annoying and entirely inconvenient.

General Hux was the problem.

Only a few short weeks ago, you would have laughed hysterically at the idea that something so stupid as a crush on your superior would cause you to become distracted and uninterested in your work. It was not as though you had never seen an attractive man before, back at the academy there had been many good looking men, but none of them had been able to truly captivate you as Hux seemed to have done.

 

From the first time you had laid your eyes on the uptight form that was the red headed General, you had found yourself become immediately drawn to him. It was as though some invisible force was pulling you towards him and no matter how much you had tried to resist, it had been impossible. You had been screwed from the beginning, you never had a chance. Your infatuation with the man was not just because of his sharp, good looks. No. It was much more than that.

You respected him a great deal and you found yourself mesmerized by the way he could command and control those around him with just a glance or a gesture of his gloved hand. Often, you had caught yourself observing him intently, without even realising that you had been doing it.  
Watching him was like witnessing the unmatched grace and power of a great predator in the wild. You enjoyed the way he strolled around the control room, his hands clasped tightly behind his back, taking in every detail around him with his icy blue stare. It fascinated you how he always seemed to be aware of everything that was going on, even when he had his back turned. No one was safe from his scrutiny. The General was always in control and you found it utterly enthralling.

 

You quickly found that you couldn't concentrate when he was anywhere near you, you would become flustered and would try to immerse yourself in your work in an attempt to impress him and in doing so, you failed miserably. You felt like a school girl again, doing everything within your power to attract the undivided attention of the hot new professor.  
Catching his attention was something you had felt yourself compelled to do, but you had wanted to do so in a way that garnered his respect, you wanted his attentions to be as a result of his appreciation of your dedication to the First Order and the high standard of work that you produced. Not in the way that it had actually transpired, a way that made you want to bury your head deep in the sand and never come back up for air.

Perhaps your brain, in all of its stupid wisdom, had found that the easiest way to gain and hold his attention was to mess up as spectacularly and as often as you could. It had worked of course, Hux was the type of man that would notice failure in a person long before he would applaud their success. He was not known for his words of encouragement and praise.

 

So in that respect, you couldn't fault your brains logic, it had effectively thrown you right under the Generals radar, but you most definitely wished that it hadn't been because of your failures that you had become known to him. If you could go back to your first day and change it so that you were just another bland, mindless worker bee in his endless fleet, then you would do so in a heartbeat. You had only wanted the man to find you to be an enchanting being, a creature of unfathomable intellect and beauty, was that really **so** unreasonable? Apparently it was. Apparently, you were more suited to his view of you being a completely useless idiot that couldn’t even walk and carry food at the same time!

After you had summoned the strength to stand up, you made your way to the small shower room located in a small corner of your quarters. You didn't even have to look at yourself in your bathroom mirror to know that you had the biggest, darkest bags resting underneath your reddened and sleep deprived eyes.

You decided to have a horrifically cold shower, knowing that if you had a hot one, there was a great possibility you would feel more inclined to stay underneath the hot, relaxing spray of the water for far longer than you should.  
There was no way in hell you were going to risk being late for your appointment with Hux. You were already in a world of shit, if you were even more than one minute late, you knew that you might as well go and throw yourself out of the airlock by your own accord, before the furious ginger dragged you and threw you from the ship himself.

 

Once you were suitably clean, you rubbed a fluffy white towel over your shivering skin, drying yourself off as fast as you could, before you sleepily sauntered over to your wardrobe and unenthusiastic-ally pulled on one of the many similar black uniforms that you had in your possession. The cold shower had done nothing to aid you in feeling more bright-eyed and awake as you had thought it would, which meant there was no hope for you being very alert when you came face to face with Hux. To make matters worse, you hadn't yet had time to restock your dwindling food and drink supplies, which meant that for the time being, you would be going without your morning coffee. All in all, it was shaping up to being one of the worst mornings you had had in a long time.

* * *

 

 

  
The time had come to meet with Hux much faster than you would have liked it to and soon enough you stood outside the heavy metal doors to his office,  that could not have been anymore daunting to you than if they had been the very gates to Hell themselves. After checking your watch you sighed in relief when you realised that it was exactly five minutes before 08:00 and that you had made it on time. It had taken around fifteen minutes to cover the distance between your quarters and the Generals office and you had practically sprinted the entire way there, so by the time you made it, you were panting like an idiot from being a bit out of breath.

You had hoped that by some miracle the General had taken the time since he last saw you to rethink the events of the previous night and had realised that you weren't really at fault on this particular occasion. Yes, you had drenched the man in your dinner, but surely that didn't warrant anything more than a small slap on the wrist?

You just stared at the door for a few seconds, doing your best to control your breathing which had become shallow and unsteady from the combination of running through the hallways like a mad person and from the crushing feeling of dread that gripped you as the reality of your situation came crashing down upon you like a tonne of bricks. It took longer than you wanted to admit to work up the courage to attempt to knock on the door, but just as your hand reached out to do so, the door slid open, causing you to almost stumble clumsily into the room. Fortunately you managed to steady yourself just in time and prevented yourself from further looking like an idiot.

  
The General stood in the small doorway and gazed at you in what seemed like slight amusement at your obviously panic stricken face. You figured that the man must have taken some sort of joy in the knowledge that he managed to have such an adverse effect on people without so much as even opening his mouth. You didn't blame him for it, if you had that much power in your possession , you were almost certain that you would have enjoyed terrorizing people too. What would be the point in power if not to use it to your advantage? Fear was the best weapon in anyone's arsenal you had come to find.

 

"Do you plan on lingering in the hallway all day (L/N) ?" He mused, his imposing form filling the doorway like a menacing black shadow.

"No, Sir, not at all."

You tried to state the words as boldly as you could and you nearly cursed to yourself when your voice decided to falter, so that your words were almost choked out in a coarse whisper. Things were already off to a bad start.

After you had waited for several seconds for him to move inside the room and gesture for you to follow in after him, you were confused to find that he did not. Instead he looked at you with his irritated stare , to which you looked back at him in slight confusion, unsure as of what you were supposed to do.

"Well?!" He almost barked as he looked at you expectantly, obviously wondering about what on earth you were waiting for and why you weren't going in as instructed.

Was it some kind of weird power play that he was trying to pull, was that why he wanted you to have to squeeze past him? Maybe watching your horrified face outside his doorway hadn't been enough for him and he wanted you to suffer another starter of terror before you were treated to the main course. Or maybe you were just overthinking it and he wasn't aware of uncomfortable he was managing to make you. Yes, the doorway was a large one, but he stood in such a way that there was little space on either side for you to pass him without getting pretty close, so he can't have expected you to fit past without an issue.

You tried to make yourself as small as possible, taking a deep breath in so that your stomach was as flat as you could make it, in order to avoid touching him with any part of yourself. You kept your eyes fixated on the ground as you squeezed past him, he was so close that you could feel the soft fabric of his uniform lightly caress against your covered arms and the warmth of his breath ghosted over you gently.  
Your heart pounded even faster in your chest and you took in a deep breath, the close proximity to the General making you feel almost dizzy. You had to fight the ever growing urge not to reach out and touch him just for the hell of it, not that you would have been brave enough to do it. It felt like a game of chicken, seeing how close you could get to danger , before jumping out the way to safety at the very last second. After the way he had reacted to you almost touching him the night before though, you made sure to avoid physical contact with him as though his touch would be corrosive like acid.

 

Once you were safely inside his office, you walked a few paces over to stand in front of his desk, after which you took in a series of quiet, calming breaths so that you were able to put on the facade that you were unfazed by his presence. The General wouldn't buy it of course, but you had to at least try. You did not want to continue to appear weak in front of him. He already had developed such a low opinion of you, it pained you to think that you could make that opinion drop any lower. Knowing you though, it was an ever present possibility. You were very good at making situations one hundred times worse for yourself, it was a skill you had mastered over time.

 

You heard him close the door behind you, which was proceeded by the heavy sound of his shoes hitting the floor as he leisurely strolled over to stand behind you, leaving only a few feet between the two of you. You were sure you could feel his eyes burning into you, as he scanned and appraised your appearance, most likely looking for anything else he could add to the list of reasons that had lead you to being in his office once again. You made sure to keep your posture as straight as possible and you pulled your face into a blank expression as you stared at the blank wall in front of you.

  
After a few moments of excruciating silence, with only the sounds of light breathing filling the air, the General finally spoke in a calm and level tone.

"Do you take pleasure in displeasing me (L/N)?" He inquired, in a very matter of fact manner, the bluntness of his question taking you slightly off guard.

 

"No, General, I do not." You stated quickly, sounding much more confident than you had before, not seeing his face made it easier to keep yourself composed.

 

You could feel him edge ever closer to you , until he was almost directly behind you, his tall figure casting a shadow over your smaller one. You felt like prey, caught in a trap with no way of escaping as the fearsome predator closed ever inward, able to make the kill at any moment, but instead deciding to play with you first.

" Is that so?" He walked in front of you, but thankfully this time he remained at a safe distance. You directed your attention from the wall, back to his piercing gaze that caused you to shift uncomfortably where you stood.

He finally stopped walking when he reached his desk and he turned around momentarily to lift up a large folder from his immaculate and organised work area. You almost admired the theatrics of the encounter so far, he sure knew how to keep you in suspense and on edge.  
He turned his attention to the pieces of paper in his hands, which gave you a brief moment to recover from the merciless eye contact , as he sifted through them causally. After a bit of skim reading, he once more looked up at you.

" Why then, is it that the only thing you excel in doing is disappointing me?"

 

You had known from the outset that the General was in no way impressed by you, he had never needed to say it for you to know it to be true, but actually hearing him say the words out loud stung much more than you could have imagined that they would.

" It is in no way my intention to disappoint you, Sir." You managed to mutter in a rather deflated tone.

He continued to flick through the thick file, choosing to ignore your last statement to instead scrutinize what you had come to realise was a file on you after closer examination, indicated by the fact that your name was printed on small, black letters neatly on the front. This of course sparked your curiosity and you wanted to saunter over to him, tear the file out of his hands and read it for yourself. You didn't want to die anytime soon though, so you shot the impulse down to join all of your other stupid ideas you had come up with over the years.

" Finished at the top of your class. Excelled and showed great promise in early training . More than adequate combat skills. ...Hmm.." Finally he looked up from the paperwork, to meet his ocean blue eyes with your (E/C) ones and he considered you thoughtfully with a frown on his face.

" You are good on paper, but in reality, you fall drastically short of expectations."

He put the file back on the table, placed his hands behind his back in what seemed to be his go to position and continued to regard you sternly, as though only deciding now what it was that he was to do with you. After all that had been said so far, it was obvious that you were not going to be let off with just some added overtime, the culmination of your failures over the past few weeks had made you very aware of that fact. You thought over the Generals previous words of warning, promising you that on your next failure he would not let you off so lightly and you had thought to yourself at the time that you were never going to allow yourself to find out what that threat entailed. Yet there you were, only a short couple of days later, in front of him once more.

 

" After much consideration, I have decided on two forms of punishment most suitable for your recent.. indiscretions." He paced at a leisurely speed in front of his desk.

 

" Firstly, you will be joining the janitorial staff doing hard, physical labour until I decide that you are fit to continue your training. You are so capable of creating messes, now you shall see what it entails to fix them...."

It took everything in your power not to shout at him in protest, but Hux shot you a warning look as you were about to open your mouth to object, which told you that doing so would be a very stupid idea. You had worked too hard to get to where you were and you were furious with yourself that you were being severely demoted, even if it was just temporary. What if the man forgot about you, or you had pissed him off so much that you would be part of the janitorial staff for the remainder of your working life. It was a terrifying thought. Yes, you hadn't been doing so well recently, but that was not who you always were nor who you would always continue to be.

" You will learn that becoming an Officer for the First Order, is an honour that is not bestowed upon just anyone. You must first prove that you are worthy and if you do not, I will personally see to it that you are terminated from your post."

Hux continued on," Secondly, you shall receive a form of corporal punishment as penance for the destruction of my personal property."

You had not been expecting that, but it was hardly surprising as corporal punishment was very much still a method of discipline that was alive and well within the First Order. It was more that you had never considered that you would be on the receiving end of it again as an adult. As a child you had been disciplined many times in such a way, almost every week for some reason or another you were stood with your hands outstretched, receiving sharp and painful hits from a strap or some other implement. It was never a pain you had gotten used to though, it had effected you less over time, but it had still been in no way pleasant. The punishment seemed even worse when you knew it would be at the hands of the fearsome General. The man was so strict, stern and had the ability to terrify you without needing to strike you in anyway and you just knew within yourself that he would not go easy on you, it was most definitely going to hurt.

" It is my preference not to resort to such..crude methods of discipline, but in your case, I see no way around it. You do not respond to my verbal warnings and so have left me with no choice." He continued on coolly as though he was discussing a subject as mundane as the weather.

The man moved to retrieve an item out of his desk and left your mind to race with ideas as to what exactly it was that he was planning on doing to you. It was would be awful, whatever it was, but you saw this as an opportunity to earn back some of his respect by embracing the punishment in a fearless manner , by not showing any discomfort or weakness. Maybe this would not make much of a statement, but at least you would not go down any further in his estimations.

It was easier said than done though, when your eyes immediately fell to the object in his hands that he carried toward you , you felt your legs weaken slightly at the thought of the glinting black leather of the medium sized strap coming down hard on any part of your body. It brought back irksome memories that was for sure. You had taken your punishments back then like a trooper and this time would be no different, General or no General, you would not be a sobbing mess by the end of it. No way in hell.

 

"Thirty strikes will be sufficient for now, but if you so much as whimper, I will double it. Do I make myself clear (L/N)?"  The way he said this was more authoritative than cruel though, the General may have been a statuesque character with the emotional capacity to match, but you had no reason to believe there was malice behind his actions. This was his job and unfortunately, doling out punishments when needed to keep his work force in line was very much a part of that.

You swallowed slightly, before nodding and managing a loud " Yes Sir."

You outstretched your hands towards him in preparation of the blows, thankfully your hands remained firm and steady and surprisingly you had found a sense of peacefulness wash over you in place of your previous fear. You weren't going to be fired or killed,  ~~just yet~~ , which were the worst case scenarios that had sprung into your mind over the course of the last few hours, causing you to get no sleep. You could handle physical pain and you took a slight amount of relief in the knowledge that it would be over as quickly as it had begun. Then you could get the heck out of the Generals office and get on with your new position as a janitor. No, that wasn't ideal, but it was a damn sight better than it could have been and if you worked hard, you were hopeful that you would find yourself back to living your normal life once more, moving your way up the ranks of the First Order.

 

The General stared at your offering and shook his head slightly, " No, there will be visible bruising that way. The punishment will be administered to a more.. discreet area."

Your couldn't hide the look of shock that plastered itself all over your face, were you seriously going to receive a spanking for ruining Hux's uniform? The idea of receiving a spanking had never appealed to you in an arousing way before, but for some reason, the idea of the General punishing you in such a way turned you on slightly. You didn't have time to process the new development for long though as he motioned for you to walk over to his desk, to which you begrudgingly complied.

" Lean over the desk and position yourself accordingly." His no-nonsense approach to asking such a thing of you did not fail to surprise you.  

Embarrassment buzzed through you as you leaned across the cold desk, your nose only inches away from the surface, you positioned your hands firmly at either side of you so that you were secure and wouldn't fall forward when being struck which would have caused your face to smack off of the furniture. Hux was quick to position himself behind your protruding backside which you were sure was sticking in the air rather obscenely, being careful to keep himself an appropriate distance away from you, but close enough so that he would be able to strike you with ease.

Never before had you been placed in such an awkward position, on the one hand, you were being punished, it would hurt and there wasn't much good that would come from that. It would bruise and it would result in you being in pain whenever you wanted to sit down for at least the following day or two.  On the other though, you couldn't help but to feel slightly aroused by the idea of being bent over the General's desk, completely at his mercy for him to do with as he wished, if he felt so inclined. Annoyingly though, Hux gave you no reason to believe he would desire to do anything to you other than to give you your punishment with the utmost of his professionalism. You hoped that this professionalism would allow you to keep your dignity intact at least.

The first stinging blow of the strap to your backside caused you to snap out of your thoughts abruptly and your bum wriggled slightly away in defiance, which earned you another sharp smack to your ass in quick succession, a silent warning that you dare not move away again. You had been right to think that the man would not go easy on you as you nearly allowed a pained gasp to escape your lips, the sheer force of the hits drove you further into the desk . Fortunately though, you managed to remain perfectly silent, there was no way you were going to give him any reason to lengthen the sore and shameful experience. It would have been nice if he had given you some kind of warning that he was going to start though, but you were in no position to ask for such niceties from the man.

Once you had reached around twenty strikes, which thankfully had come and gone rather quickly, you no longer felt the pain as much as you had done to begin with. You had become slightly numbed which was a blessing, but the constant contact of the stiff leather strap smacking hard against your bottom had sent an almost blazing, but not entirely unpleasant, warmth pulsing through your no doubt scarlet backside. Hux was closer to you now and you pressed yourself closer to the desk as a result, not wanting your back end to accidentally brush up against him, you knew that he would not thank you for that, accident or not. Thankfully for you, just before you could feel yourself begin to shamefully enjoy the intended punishment, the General moved away from you, informing you that the aforementioned thirty strikes had been reached. You let out a sigh in relief, relaxed in knowing that it had been completed before the man could notice that you didn't entirely hated the whole experience. Still though, it was not an experience you wanted to repeat again in the near future.

You pushed yourself back onto your feet, your butt stung considerably and your face flushed a deep scarlet from the humiliation of it all, you started to limp towards the door, assuming that the meeting was over, but before you could, the General stopped you dead in your tracks, putting the strap back on the desk beside him so it was out of the way. Of course you had been stupid to assume that you had been allowed to leave, rather than to wait for him to expressly tell you to do so,  but your mind had been fixated elsewhere, rightfully so, and you had temporarily forgotten the formalities that were strictly adhered to normally. 

With one of his long and elegant fingers he gestured for you to come closer to him, to which you almost sighed thinking to yourself what the hell the man wanted from you now, but you hesitantly obliged. You stopped at what you though was an appropriate distance from the man, but he shot you a look of annoyance.

" Closer ( L/N ), I do not have all day."

You got so close to the redhead  that if you had been so bold and brave, you could have leaned forward ever so slightly and placed a gentle kiss upon his full and inviting lips. Even after he had just inflicted a great amount of pain on you, the idea was still tempting. You didn't have a death wish though and so you managed to restrain yourself from doing just that. He looked at you as though knowing exactly what you had been thinking, but his expression remained stern and unreadable as he grasped your wrist lightly with his cold hand and pulled you forward until your body was almost flush with his.

Your breath hitched noticeably as you became aware of just how close you were to him and you could swear you witnessed a small smirk threatening to pull at the Generals pink lips. He easily managed to disguise it though and within seconds his features returned to his default expression, as though it had not happened at all.  
He reached out towards you with his free hand and his index finger lightly brushed against the soft skin of your neck, the cool touch of the leather causing you to flinch ever so slightly in remembrance of the event that had transpired only moments before. This touch was different though, almost tender in a way. It was becoming increasingly difficult for you to hold his gaze, you feared that your eyes would portray to him everything you were feeling in that moment. Confusion. Fear. Desire.

Fortunately for you, he broke the eye contact and his gaze instead followed his finger intently as his digit continued to move down your neck, to the collar of your uniform and further down still until it came to rest on your shoulder. You were close to asking him about what he was doing, not that you were entirely sure you would have been able to manage to string a coherent sentence together, but before you had the chance, he answered your question by tugging slightly on the black fabric covering your shoulder.

" Do you often wear your uniform inside out?"

Your eyes instantly flew to inspect your uniform as though you did not believe his words to be true. Much to your dismay, you glanced at where the Generals finger resided on your shoulder and saw the large, garish seam that went from your shoulder and continued all the way down your arm. The telltale sign that your uniform was indeed, inside out. Another humiliating blow had been dealt to you in such short succession after the last one, you were beginning to entertain the idea that you were cursed, why else would you have such terrible luck? You hoped that this did not mean you were to be punished even further, you were not sure you could handle much more at that point.

"Please rectify the situation immediately. I will send you your new schedule within the hour, but until then you are dismissed." He removed his finger from your shoulder and walked away from you, no longer interested in your presence as once again he immersed himself back into his work. The man was like a machine that just never stopped.

Sore and ashamed, you made your way out of his office and once you were out of the door, you scurried away as fast as your legs would carry you back towards your quarters. You just hoped that no one else would notice the current state of your attire, you hardly needed yet another reason for your fellow employees to take the piss out of you. All in all, it had been a crappy morning, you just hoped that things would start to look up for you from thereon out. With your luck at the moment though, it seemed doubtful.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the massive wait on this chapter. The last couple of weeks have been hectic with final exams, college interviews and I started a new job which is currently taking up a lot of my time with long, horrible shifts.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter.
> 
> As always thanks for reading, leaving Kudos and for your awesome comments, they are always very much appreciated! :)

It had come as a nasty shock to you just how slowly time could pass when you were completely and utterly miserable. Two entire weeks had dragged on since your last meeting with General Hux, but it may as well have been centuries of mind numbing, repetitive and mundane physical labour. The redhead had most certainly not been joking around when he said that it would be grueling work for you, (he was hardly the kind of man who would crack a joke) , but at the time you had just shrugged it off, believing that the worst part of this punishment would be the crushing humiliation of your demotion. _Oh how wrong you were_.

  
Yes, the embarrassment of being put on duty as a member of the cleaning staff when you were supposed to be an Officer in training, was awful in it's own right, much more so than you could have previously imagined. You were reminded daily of your failures in your work-life and it had begun to take it's toll on you. Those reminders varied in the form they took, from the ever so subtle looks of pity shot in your direction from those who had worked alongside you in the control room. To the not so subtle giggles and snickers of those who found the entire situation to be hysterical. Both were equally as frustrating and annoying to you, but even this you could find a way to deal with.

  
What you found much more difficult to adjust to, was pretty much being labeled the bitch of the janitorial staff, you were treated like crap and delegated all of the worst and most grotesque jobs that were thrown the departments way. These degrading and utterly undignified tasks ranged anywhere from cleaning spills in the cafeteria, to cleaning the large , shared Storm Trooper refreshers, which was by no stretch of the imagination, a pleasant task. You knew for a fact that there were droids on board the vessel that had been created specifically for the purpose of cleaning, you had witnessed such droids executing the very work that you now faced each day. You figured that the reason you were forced to do such tedious tasks was because the General had instructed the head of the department to make things more difficult for you, it was after all, meant to be a punishment, not a walk in the park. It pissed you off that this was most likely the case, that the man you had become somewhat infatuated with, was the reason behind your suffering. As much as you wanted to hate the stern man though, you couldn't bring yourself to do so for long. He was of course, only doing his job.

To make matters worse, it was no secret that you were on very thin ice with General Hux, if you didn't perform well in every job you were assigned to and get a glowing review from the head of the department, then you were sure as hell going to be on the first ship out of there. This was of course used as leverage against you. You couldn't say no, no matter how long the hours or how awful the job, as the ever present threat of loosing your job loomed over you. No, you had to take the crap thrown your way in your stride and not allow it to break you, which was much easier said than done, as each second that passed, you were more and more losing patience with the situation.  
Luckily you were very strong willed and although the situation at hand was less than desirable, you would not let it consume you and fill you with negativity. The need to prove your worth both to yourself and for some irritating reason, General Hux, pushed you through your strenuous duties. You took comfort in the knowledge that the situation could have worked out entirely worse for you, you could have been fired or even killed. So with this realisation floating around in the back of your mind daily, it was much easier for you to continue on and almost be thankful for the mercy that had been shown to you. _Almost_ .

  
The one good thing that had come out of those soul destroying couple of weeks was that you had managed to somehow make a friend, of sorts. It had been a completely unexpected occurrence, nothing short of a miracle really. Sure, you guys weren't that close yet, in fact you knew very little about the person who you now deemed as your friend, but it didn't seem to matter. You took comfort in their company regardless of this and you were sure that they took some kind of solace in yours too.  
This was most likely due to the fact that both of you were considered outcasts/misfits on board the ship and most of your fellow Finilizer employees did their best to avoid you both at all costs, as to make sure there was no way being associated with either of you could make them look bad. This, you considered, was possibly the only reason that the two of you had become acquainted at all, both of you had very slim choices on who you could become friends with and so it was only natural that the two undesirables would find each other eventually.

  
Your recent demotion had not only effected your work life, but it had also had a great impact on your already pitiful personal life too. As a newbie, you had found it extremely difficult to make personal connections with the others on board, who as longer serving staff members, had established their friend groups, which were hard to infiltrate. Often, you found yourself observing the obvious friendship groups on the _Finilizar_ curiously and noticed that these friendships very much resembled the cliques formed back at the academy. Friendships seemed to be formed on position and status alone, with no consideration to how deplorable or dull an individual was. Personality appeared to have no bearing here at all, so long as you were not below them in status, it did not matter. Troopers only associated with other Troopers and Officers with other Officers, there was no room for social mobility in this place. As a "shamed" Officer in Training, whose reputation as somewhat of a failure and clumsy idiot, you had pretty much resigned yourself to the idea that you were never going to make friends anytime soon. That was, however, until you met him.  
  
You had been working for what must have been around fourteen solid hours when you had finally been dismissed to retire for an evening of much needed rest. As per usual though, your stomach demanded that you go and eat, a demand which you could not ignore or suffer the outrage of your growling stomach all night. You knew from experience that the thought of food would no doubt keep you up and restless in anticipation of your next meal, skipping a chance to fuel up was not something you did often and especially not now that you needed all of your energy to pour into your physically demanding work. So going to the Cafeteria had been an unavoidable journey you had to make that night.

Fortunately, as it was late in the evening, it had been relatively quiet in the small canteen, with only a small cluster of Storm Troopers huddled at a table in the far end of the room, deep in discussion and so they didn't even acknowledge your existence when you entered the room, which was just fine by you.  
After selecting the least revolting dish that you could put your hands on ,(some lumpy,grey-ish looking vegetable mush), you moved to your regular table which resided in a darkened corner of the room, a good, safe distance away from all the other tables. It was a table that had come to be known by your former colleagues as 'the loser table'. You paid this nickname as much heed as it was due, which was none at all and took a small sense of satisfaction in knowing that when you sat there, you were not likely to be disturbed. You could keep your head down, keep yourself to yourself and enjoy your well deserved down time.

  
Most nights that is how it went, but on that night things changed and the walls around your fortress of solitude were knocked down rather abruptly. You had been somewhat startled when you were pulled out of your daydreaming and became aware of the presence of a dark shadow looming over you. You looked up from your plate and were surprised to be met with the deep brown, but rather intimidating gaze of an employee you had never seen before.

  
The extremely tall man was wearing an ill fitting, dim grey boiler suit, with a heinously bright orange worker vest pulled over the top. He had on a pair of comically large framed glasses, that took up a huge portion of the mans slim, angular face and they rested loosely on the mans big , but not horribly so, nose. They slipped down the bridge of his nose where they had been sitting uncomfortably and threatened to fall off of his face, to which the man grunted in annoyance and used one of his large fingers to push the glasses back into their intended position. You reckoned that maybe those must have been his spares, as there was no way he would have been prescribed a pair as horribly ill-fitting as those ones were.

What brought you some amusement about the strangers appearance, although you were careful not to let the smile that was forming on your lips show, was that upon further inspection of the ridiculously tall man before you, was his thick mess of blond , slightly curled hair that seemed to point in every direction and it struck you as very much out of place. Sure enough, after your keen eyes scrutinised the mans appearance further, underneath the thick blond strands, there were dark, ebony locks poking out and you would not need to have been a genius to figure out that the stranger was most definitely wearing a stupid blond wig.

It was perplexing to you and your face scrunched slightly to reflect your deep thought into the situation, you did your best not to allow your eyes to linger on the abomination of a wig for too long, as to not cause the man any offence. He had hair, you could see that as clear as day. So why on earth was he wearing such a ridiculous wig on top of it?  
Maybe he was just one of those guys who had become completely bald on the top of his head, but still had loads of hair around the sides and he wasn't ready to commit to being fully bald just yet. If that were the case though, then why didn't he just wear a toupee that matched his own hair colour? That option would have drawn far less attention to the problem. Or maybe you were over complicating it and in reality he just liked mixing things up a bit and fancied being a blond for a while.  
What ever the reason for his bizarre hairdo, the look in the mans darkened eyes as he towered over you from the other side of the table, told you that you had best keep those queries to yourself and not pry any further, which was just fine by you.

  
You shifted uncomfortably in your seat, the presence of the odd looking man was making you feel slightly uneasy. You wanted to tell him to piss off so that you could just eat your meal in a peaceful, stress free environment, but you could not bring yourself to be that rude, no matter how tempting the idea was. Just as you had thought this though, his gaze seemed to soften slightly and there was an almost apologetic look on his face. It was as though he had become aware that his presence was unnerving for you and that it was not his intention for it to be that way. The next thing you knew, there was a massive, pale hand waving under your nose and a deep, commanding voice sounded in your ears.

  
" Hi. I'm Matt. I'm a radar technician."

  
You looked up towards the large hand skeptically before reaching out and shaking it with a grip as strong as you could muster, wanting to make a good first impression.

 

" Oh, Hey Matt, I'm (F/N) and I'm a..."

  
You took a few seconds to respond, your own mind was still fighting the urge to called yourself an Officer in Training, rather than what you were currently employed as, which was of course much lower in status. Even though you did not know this guy and you really shouldn't have given a damn about his opinion of you, a part of you still did not want another look of disapproval or pity shot in your direction when he realised he was conversing with someone of such a low status. Not that a radar technician was an amazing job either, but it was still considered more skilled than your line of work.

  
After a bit of deliberation you finally managed to come up with a title that seemed more acceptable to you, "..I'm a sanitation specialist..." You thought this sounded somewhat better than just saying that you were a janitor, although it essentially meant the same thing. You just hoped that he would sense your reluctance in admitting your new profession and would not linger on the subject for long.

  
" So, you are a janitor." Matt stated bluntly, obviously completely oblivious to the fact that you had been attempting to avoid referring to yourself as such. You knew that there was no shame in the work of a janitor, the staff worked hard just like any Officer did, but the environment you were used to did not see the value in such work, which was frustrating, but not something that would change anytime soon.  
The fact that he pointed out your situation and hadn't read between the lines that you were not exactly thrilled about your position, pissed you off slightly. You were exhausted, starving and highly irritable and so snapping at the tall man was pretty much unavoidable at that point. You didn't have the energy to stop yourself. Not that you really even wanted to. The tone in his voice seemed almost dismissive of you and by this point you had really had enough of people looking down on you.

  
" Yes Matt, I'm a kriffing Janitor, alright?!" You huffed and half shouted in annoyance.

  
The man looked quite taken aback by your outburst and you saw his fist clench slightly where it rested at his side and his jaw tighten as though he was holding himself back from retaliating with a tidal wave of fury. It seemed to you as though he was not used to being snapped at and his gaze that had softened slightly, went back to a terrifying and unsettling glare bore straight into you.

  
Even though he was agitating you to a degree, you found yourself feeling guilty after a few moments of heavy silence had settled between the two of you. This newbie probably had no idea why the subject was a touchy one for you and he had been pleasant enough to come and introduce himself to you when all others on the ship avoided you like the plague. He looked a bit socially awkward and so you thought that perhaps it must have taken quite a bit of courage to initiate a conversation with you in the first place. You couldn't afford to drive anyone else away, especially over something as petty as your damaged ego. A friend was something that would make the mundane life on the ship more tolerable and so you were not going to let the chance at a new friendship pass you by.

  
After inhaling a deep, calming breath, you backtracked, "Sorry Matt, it's just a..well..it's a touchy subject for me that's all." You sighed slightly, breaking your eye contact with the man, whose anger had dissipated somewhat following your apology, and instead you put your concentration into using your fork to push around the unappealing grey mush on your plate. It was a feeble attempt to busy yourself in order to avoid the awkward situation that had unfurled.

  
You half expected the man to leave after your outburst, if you had been in his position you probably would have, but to your surprise, you heard the chair opposite you scraping along on the hard floor with a slight screech as he pulled it out and sat down. His unfaltering gaze still did not leave you as though he was trying to look deep into your eyes and navigate into the vast depths of your mind, in an attempt figure you out. The intensity of it was unnerving to say the least, but you reminded yourself that he was not a superior of yours, he had no control or power over you and this helped you to relax in his presence somewhat.

  
Before the silence could descend upon the two of you for too long, Matt broke it with a welcomed change of subject and a tone of amusement in his voice, which helped to lighten the mood considerably.

  
"I heard you are the one that threw soup all over the General. I wish I could have seen that."

 

 You quirked an eyebrow at him, " It was an accident. I don't actually mind the General."

 

It would seem as though Chinese whispers had occurred regarding your incident with the General and had skewed the truth so that it was thought that you chucked your dinner over the man on purpose. You should have expected nothing else really.

  
" Why would he demote you if it was only an accident?" He pushed his glasses back to rest on his nose, before continuing thoughtfully, "That doesn't seem fair."

  
It looked as though the news of your demotion had reached even the newest members in the ranks, this should hardly have come as a shock to you though. Being stuck in a ship, unable to leave for months at a time, meant that not a whole lot worth talking about actually happened here, so if there was any gossip to be found, it would spread like a wildfire.

  
"The soup thing was the last straw I think. Besides that's not why I was demoted. My punishment for the soup incident was something else...." You paused for a second, stopping yourself from revealing to your new acquaintance that the redhead had spanked you. "Well..never mind that." You added quickly. You couldn't conceal the red flush though that was brought to your cheeks as you were reminded of the General standing so close behind you, his hot breath traveling up your neck and the sharp, but oddly arousing sting of the strap on your rear end as he struck you over and over again with an unrelenting force.

  
Matt cleared his throat to draw you back out of your own mind, which you had become momentarily lost in and you looked back up at him in embarrassment, hopeful that he didn't read too much into your reaction. Though it seemed he had noticed, but chose not to pry any further thankfully.

  
You continued, " I don't blame him. I deserved what has happened to me. The General only did what had to be done."

  
A look of mild disgust twisted over Matt's features as you condoned the actions of your superior, "You don't need to defend him to me, I would not have stood for it if I were you."  
You chuckled slightly, not bothering to hide your clear amusement, " Yeah well, he is pretty damn intimidating Matt."

  
Matt's face remained stoic and serious when he responded quickly and with conviction, "Not as intimidating as Kylo Ren."

  
He glanced back at you, as though looking for any minute reaction that your face might give away when the name of your Commander had been mentioned, before adding,"...What do you think of Kylo Ren?"

  
Matt's enthusiasm seemed to peak considerably on this line of questioning and he looked as if he had tensed up as he waited eagerly for your response. Already you were given the impression that the lanky blond had a bit of an interest in the dark, masked shadow that was Kylo Ren.

  
You couldn't blame him for his interest, the Commander was a terrifying enigma that was often the topic of discussion around these halls, this was never for any good reason though. The discussions mainly focused on his random and occasionally unprovoked childlike temper tantrums that ended in entire rooms being trashed beyond recognition at the hands of his strange, red lightsaber. Another favourite Kylo Ren related topic was what the reason could be behind wearing that creepy mask and what kind of deformed, hideous creature lurked underneath the confines of his black and silver chrome helmet. You had never seen what was hidden under there and to say you were not curious about it would have been a lie, but after hearing the endless rumours about the Commanders violent outbursts, you found it safer to avoid the subject of the man as much as you could.

  
You considered your response for a moment, carefully selecting what to say ,which apparently had been a moment too long, as Matt's brows furrowed together in an ever growing state of impatience.

  
" Emm, well..I've never met him, so I can't really say. I'm sure he is a great Commander though, otherwise he wouldn't be here I guess." You continued," I've heard that he has a pretty wild temper , so I'm glad it was the General that reprimanded me and not him. Otherwise my corpse would probably be rotting in the trash compactor right now."

  
There was a lengthy silence following the brief conversation and luckily Matt had stopped staring at you in favour of glaring furiously at the contents of his food tray. You felt almost sorry for the newbie as he tried to summon the strength to bring a mouthful of the putrid dish to his mouth, the food must have been much better where he had come from before he had ended up on the Finilizer. You wondered for a moment, where that had been. A line of questioning for another time, you didn't wish to overwhelm him with personal questions so soon. It was late and you were unsure you would retain much of the information he provided you if he had decided to tell you anything about himself anyway, so it was good for the moment that he did not appear to be forth coming with information on himself.

  
You had been trying your best for a good few minutes to stifle a yawn, you did not want to appear as though his presence was boring you, but your exhaustion quickly got the better of you and you could no longer hold back a long, drawn out yawn. The food you had consumed sated your hunger for the time being and now your body demanded that you sleep, a request that you were not at liberty to ignore any longer. So you gathered your empty dishes back onto your tray, stood up from the table and excused yourself from him with as warm of a smile as you could summon.

  
"It was nice to meet you Matt. Maybe I'll see you around sometime?"

* * *

 

 

The next few days had passed in a similar sort of manner, you would finish your shift, Matt would finish his and he would join you at the 'loser table' where you would chat idly about his and your days, but the subjects of conversation would never move any further or deeper than that.

  
It followed more or less the same format each time, you would complain about being overworked, about your exhaustion and how you could use some time off. Then Matt would respond by complaining about his crappy job, about the asshole Storm Troopers and the horrible food that was served each day.

  
You knew very little about Matt, other than that he was a radar technician, who was terrible at his job, and had an odd fascination with the menacing Kylo Ren, to the point that you were pretty certain he was probably stalking the man, which you thought was pretty hilarious. You found Matt's constant need to defend the Commander rather comical and you wondered if Kylo Ren was even aware that someone on board the ship not only seemed to like him, but idolize him. From what little you knew of the Commander, you were sure that this idolisation would please him greatly and only add to the large ego he seemed to possess, the way he stalked around the halls made you believe he was an arrogant man.

  
Any attempt you made at finding out more about Matt was shut down as abruptly as the subject came up. Strangely, this bothered you much less than you had thought that it would. It was just nice to have someone to vent to. Yes, it would have been great to know a bit of background on your new friend, to try and determine what type of guy he was really, but at the same time you just enjoyed the distraction of his company. His wig was another thing that kept peaking your curiosity and you wanted to bring up the subject so many times, but you just managed to stop yourself, thinking that it might be rude to point it out. Yet another question you would ask him when your friendship was more established and not in such a primitive stage.

  
So after a little deliberation with yourself, you came to the conclusion that the little you knew of him was enough for you for now. You would continue in your attempts to get him to talk about his life once he looked a bit more comfortable in your company. For even though he kept returning to eat with you, he still seemed constantly on edge and wary of you, as though in disbelief that you actually wanted to sit and talk with him. As though at any moment he expected you to turn around and tell him it was some sort of drawn out practical joke. You figured that Matt had never really had any friends.

  
You weren't sure why that was. Yes, he wasn't exactly forthcoming with information on himself, but he was pleasant enough and his awkward, dorky behaviour actually worked in his favour, it made him seem less terrifying and far more endearing to you.

* * *

  
It had been an extremely unexpected and pleasant surprise when you received the news that you would be given the following two days off of work. When the notification had popped up on your datapad, you immediately assumed that there had been some kind of mistake, or perhaps a cruel joke your head of department was playing on you for a cheap laugh, but after a great deal of convincing, you finally accepted it as the truth.

  
No explanation had been given as to why you had received the time off and a few of your janitorial colleagues eyed you with contempt, obviously jealous that you had been granted some personal days after so little time in the department, when the majority of them had been putting in requests for time off for weeks and having each request quickly rejected.

You didn't care though, after the way you had been treated by them since being placed in the department, you couldn't even try to feel sorry or guilty about it.  
Days off were pretty uncommon, you hadn't had one since the day you started working on the ship and you did not think that you would be getting a personal day for a long time, but you welcomed the time to yourself with open arms.

Although you were not often one to look a gift horse in the mouth, the sudden good luck being brought your way was met with a great deal of skepticism from you. For the last few weeks you had been working under the assumption that you were most definitely cursed and the fact that two fairly good things had happened to you in such short succession, had thrown you off a little. Perhaps it wasn't all as bad as you had started to believe.

  
At first, you liked the idea of using your time off to catch up on some much needed sleep, the thought of being able to lie in bed for hours on end with no interruptions sounded like utter bliss. But after mulling the very tempting idea over in your head for a while, you decided that it would just be a bit of a waste of your downtime. Who knew when you would be getting time off again, it would be a shame to waste it hibernating. That was when you came to the conclusion that this would be a great opportunity to try and get to know Matt a bit better in a more relaxed environment. So you decided to invite him round to your quarters for a drink, an invitation which was met with some confusion from him when you approached the subject during breakfast that morning.

  
"You want me to come to your quarters?" He raised an eyebrow at you," Why? Are you interested in me sexually?"

  
Your eyes had widened in alarm and you had practically spit your coffee all over him when he had suggested this. The blunt and downright crazy question had caught you completely off guard, you responded by punching him playfully in the arm a little harder than you had intended and he flinched away from you defensively. He didn't like being touched, that was another thing to add to your list of things Matt was not a great fan of.

" Kriff-sake Matt, no!" You practically yelled at him, causing a few people in the canteen to turn around and eye you both with mild curiosity. Matt looked a little offended by your blatant disgust for such an idea, so you decided to tone it down a little. There was no need to be cruel to him you had to remind yourself.

  
Finally, you found the right words,"No, I don't like you in that way Matt. I just wanted to hang out and get drunk with you. That's what friends sometimes do."

  
He seemed to relax a little after your explanation and after a bit of consideration, he nodded with less enthusiasm than you had hoped for, but accepted your offer nonetheless. If it had been someone else who had met your invite with such trepidation, you would have been quite offended and would have taken the offer off of the table as swiftly as you had put it down. What little you knew about Matt though, you had become aware that he wasn't great in social situations and you were convinced that he still didn't trust you for whatever reason. To give him credit though, over the few days he had been in your company, he had been making an effort to come out of his shell, which you appreciated a great deal.

You had already finished a couple of large glasses of your favourite wine, well when you say favourite, you meant the only drinkable one you could purchase at the small store, when Matt showed up at the door. It seemed that he too, had quite a few drinks before he had decided to head over to your quarters, no doubt in an attempt to make himself more social, which was sweet in a way. It was strange seeing him out of his ill-fitting grey uniform and instead in a simple black t shirt and black trousers, you had to say though that the darker colour suited him much better. You had hoped that he would have removed the stupid wig though.

  
He loomed in your doorway, supporting his weight with one hand and in the other he held a heavy looking bag that swayed slightly and it's contents clinked together, telling you that what was inside was most likely glass bottles, which you were hoping were filled with some better alcohol than you had provided for your two man party.  
You grinned at him widely, the wine had already gone to your head, but not terribly so and you waved your hand leisurely, gesturing for the lanky blond to come inside, which he did promptly, his tall form swooshing past you and he sat himself on your small couch, which groaned slightly under him, not used to accommodating a man of his size . Matt then proceeded to rummage around in his bag, fishing out a rather large bottle of some kind of clear spirit.

  
After gathering one of your few glasses from your small kitchenette that conjoined onto your living room, you handed it to the man and slumped onto the couch next to him. The lack of seating was somewhat problematic and you had not factored this in before you had invited Matt into your quarters. You were well aware by now that personal space was something of an issue for the man, but you refused to be forced into sitting on your floor in your own quarters. It was just not going to happen.

  
Much to your surprise though, the man did not appear to be at all fazed by the close proximity of your bodies and did not shrug away from you as you had anticipated would happen. Instead, he reclined further into the soft furnishings and took a lengthy swig of his drink, before offering his glass up for you to taste.

  
You warily took the glass from Matt's hand and inspected the liquid, bringing it up to your nose to take a sniff in order to give you some kind of indication to it's taste before you were ready to take a drink. Your face scrunched up in disgust as the scent of the liquid burned your nostrils, it smelled almost chemically, like some sort of industrial paint thinner, not at all pleasant, but if the smell was anything to go by, then it was sure to be strong stuff, which was exactly what you needed after the few weeks you had had.  
The liquid burned your lips and tongue as you took a healthy mouthful, allowing the translucent liquid to sit in your mouth for a few moments, before allowing yourself to swallow it. Unexpectedly, the smell of the liquid had been misleading, as the drink was actually quite tasteless and smooth, allowing for an altogether not unpleasant drink. Upon witnessing the look of initial disgust on your face fade, Matt took it upon himself to pour you your own glass, to which you thanked him and brought it to your lips for another sip.

The two of you made your usual small talk with each other, discussing work woes and other mundane drivel. As the drinks continued to flow though and the night wore on, the topics of your conversations became slightly more in depth and you both seemed to be attempting to push each others limits to see what sort of information you could get out of one another.

  
"You didn't tell me what other punishment Hux gave you, you had seemed embarrassed by it though. What was it?"

  
"It was..um..corporal punishment." You finally admitted. " General Hux used a strap and.." Your mind once again drifted for a few seconds to the image of you bent over his desk, but you snapped yourself out of it quickly.

  
Matt looked at you as if he knew, but wanted to hear you spell it out, "If he only hit you then why do you look so embarrassed? I think there is more to it"

  
"Well, he sort of...well....it was more of a spanking than anything. I don't know, having your superior punish you like some kind of disobedient child is pretty humiliating." You thought this explanation seemed pretty convincing and you hoped that it would throw him off of the scent as to the real reason you were embarrassed.

  
You were wrong though.

  
"So, redheads are more your type then?" You had to force yourself not to allow the shock of Matt's correct observation to reach your face, Matt may have been awkward and dorky, but he sure as hell didn't miss a thing. To be fair though, you had been pretty crap at trying to hide it in the first place, so you couldn't give him too much kudos for figuring it out.

  
" I don't know what you mean Matt." You smirked at him warily, finding your only option at that moment was to feign innocence to Matt's correct perception.

  
Matt was having none of it though and decided to keep pushing, " You are attracted to Hux, that much is obvious."

  
A scarlet blush tinged your cheeks and that was not just an effect of the wine, " I.." You had started to protest, but Matt's hand lazily moved to your face and covered your mouth sloppily in order to prevent you from doing so.

  
His eyes conveyed his growing inebriation, but he held himself well, "Don't deny it, I know it's true, although I don't understand the attraction myself."

  
You sighed defeatedly, there was no point protesting it anymore, Matt could see right through you, " Yeah well, even if it was true, it's not like I can do anything about it."

  
" Besides, I'm pretty sure he hates me."

  
Matt shook his head and took your glass out of your hand to refill your drink, when he noticed disappointingly that the large bottle was empty, "If he hated you, then he would have terminated you after your first failure, (F/N)"

"Maybe so, but I know he wouldn't look twice at someone of my status."

  
"Giving up without trying will get you nowhere. Just send him a message on your datapad, let him know."

  
" _Yeah_.." You giggled at how absurd those words sounded coming out of his mouth, which caused Matt to raise an eyebrow at you in confusion. "I'm not going to do that Matt. I've not had nearly enough to drink to do something that crazy."

  
"I see." A look of raw determination grew in Matt's drunken eyes and as if on cue, he pulled another large bottle with the contents of a golden brown liquid this time, with a label written in a language you couldn't understand, out of his bag and waved it under your nose invitingly. It looked pretty damn expensive, you had no idea how a simple technician could have afforded such a thing, maybe he had stolen it? You didn't dare ask though, the less you knew about it, the better.

 

* * *

  
  
A few hours later , you had somehow managed to end up lying on the floor next to your couch, more drunk than you had ever been in your life, with a datapad in your clumsy hands, trying your best to type out a coherent message. Matt had succeeded in his mission to get you blind drunk so that you would message the ginger man a proclamation of your lust for him . As soon as Matt had become aware that you were wasted and in a ,'to hell with it all', kind of mood, he took no time at all to thrust the datapad into your willing hands.

  
His mischievous gaze watched you intently as you constructed your message at a snails pace. Your eyes found it more and more difficult to concentrate on the small black text on the screen as each moment progressed. Every time you considered trying to back out of it, momentarily coming to your senses, Matt would flash you a wide smile and continue to egg you on. Something told you that there was more to this than you knew, but your drunken mind decided not to pursue the gut feeling any further.  
Finally you had your end result:

  
'Hux,

You may have a stick up your ass but you are still hot!

I like food, you probably do too. I'm pretty convinced you are human and I know that humans like to eat. We should eat food in the same room sometime. Your quarters or maybe mine?'  
x

  
Your drunken eyes looked over the message a few times, the concentration on your face evident as you desperately tried to settle on the letters which by now were jumping and completely out of focus.Silently, you thanked the universe for auto-correct as you were unsure as to what indecipherable drivel you would have ended up sending to the man if there wasn't such a thing.

  
Instead of the dread that you thought would follow making such a stupid move that was most definitely going to end your career, your alcohol fogged mind couldn't see anything but the funny side of it. That was one thing you loved about alcohol, it made the most ridiculous and terrible ideas seem like exceptionally great ones. It felt as though anything and all things were entirely possible, which was nothing short of intoxicating.

The only thing that would have made the situation so much better would be if you could see the look of shock on Hux's face when he read the message, just the thought of his blue eyes widening with confusion was enough for you to double over in fits of hysterical laughter and to your surprise, Matt joined in. The vast amounts of alcohol he had consumed now dragging him down into the drunken void along with you.

  
"I'msogettingfired!" You slurred, wiping the laughter induced tears from your eyes and rolling onto your belly, propping your head up on your hands to meet the eyes of your intoxicated friend , who was slumped across your sofa like a large black cat relaxing peacefully. The laughter died down after a few minutes and a pleasant silence filled the room as you both enjoyed your buzz, before Matt broke the comfortable quiet on a more serious sounding note.

  
"I wouldn't allow that to happen."

You smiled up at him,"Yeahwell", you jabbed a finger into his muscular leg," There's not much a radar technician could do about that."

  
Matt replied in a rather ominous tone, "You're right a technician would be useless."

* * *

 

 

You couldn't even bring yourself to check your datapad for the rest of your down-time, the thought of what you had done was so horrifying and embarrassing that your faces natural skin-tone was hidden beneath a constant bright blush. You buried your head in your hands from the shame whenever you dwelled on what you had done for too long and when the memories of writing out the message invaded your mind, you wanted to scream out in complete frustration. Your impulsive drunk persona deserved a slap for the torment you were now being put through and your new friend ,Matt, was no innocent bystander in the whole affair either. A fact which pissed you off a bit when you thought about it for too long.

  
You had been reluctant to send the extremely risky and ridiculous message to the General of the First Order of all people, but Matt had been insistent that you send the message and make the General aware of your attraction for him and you could not begin to understand why that was.

The mischief in his eyes that night had been hard to ignore and it continued to play on your mind the more that you thought about it. It almost seemed as though Matt knew how uncomfortable your declaration would make the ginger and he enjoyed the idea of making the man squirm. Maybe you were just being paranoid. Still though, he should have stopped you from making such a catastrophic mistake that would no doubt finally put an end to your short lived career, but again you knew he was pretty new to this whole friendship thing. So he probably did not realise that friends were meant to look out for each other in situations like that. Maybe he thought he had been doing you a favour by letting you alert the General to your attraction to him. Stupid Matt.

Soon enough, after your days off, which had been anything but relaxing, you were back to the wonderful task of scrubbing floors. At least today you had the distraction of Matt's company ,as he slacked off from his work, (he stormed off when he was yelled at for not being able to rewire a calcinator) and his company made your mundane task much easier to get on with. There was something oddly calming about the presence of the tall, dorky man. You had since taken it upon yourself to forgive Matt for allowing you to be such an idiot that night, you had come to the realisation that the blame rested solely at your door and even though Matt had spurred you on, it was your fault and yours alone.

  
"Has our dear General made contact yet?" He leaned his weight on one arm against the wall and looked down on your smaller form, scrubbing the floor with a look of amusement on his face.

  
You paused in your work for a moment to look up at him, the worry in your eyes evident," No, which is more terrifying than if he had." You continued, "I still think you are an asshole for letting me do that just so you know."

  
Matt playfully kicked the wet sponge out of your hand and it made a slight squelching noise as it traveled along the smooth, dry floor, before stopping a few feet away from you. You glanced up into his glinting brown eyes and smiled despite yourself, the smirk pulling at the corner of his lips was enough to make you chuckle and you flipped him your middle finger in defiance.

  
"You aren't helping to convince me otherwise, jerkface." You giggled, not bothering to get to your feet to go and retrieve your sponge and instead opted to crawl along the floor like a toddler to fetch it, which would have looked ridiculous to any on lookers.  
Your eyes were trained on the ground as you retrieved your scrubbing utensil and turned back to face Matt, whose expression had dropped completely. You were about to ask him what was wrong when you heard the heavy sound of boots hitting off of the corridor floor, quickly heading in both of your direction. The footsteps stopped a small distance behind you and your heart dropped to your stomach when a familiar voice reached your ears.

  
"Why is it that I am not surprised the two of you have managed to find each other?"

  
It was the calm, but rather posh sounding voice of none other than the ginger General , whom you had been hoping to avoid for the rest of your lifetime. Although you were horrified, your body's trained response kicked in and you attempted to get to your feet to acknowledge your superiors presence respectfully, the way you had been taught to do so. Before you could move more than a centimeter upwards though, a leather gloved hand gripped your shoulder gently and pushed you back down to the floor.

  
" Please Miss (L/N), do not get up on my account. This is but a fleeting visit and I do not wish to inconvenience you longer than necessary ." Your heart thundered in your chest as he moved closer to your back until he stood directly behind your kneeling form, maintaining his grip on your shoulder which kept you glued in place.  
  
" As to the reason for my visit," The general turned his attention to Matt, " while I am truly flattered by your proposition Matt, I am afraid that I will have to decline your offer." His voice was laced with amusement as he eyed the man opposite him.

  
Matt's mood had shifted entirely. The guy that only moments before the redheads arrival had been joking around and laughing with you, was now replaced with what you could only describe as a completely different person. His ability to allow his temper to consume him so suddenly was rather unnerving and it made you glad that you had managed to get on his good side, as you would hate to be on the receiving end of that temper.

  
It made sense now that Matt would idolize someone like Kylo Ren, they both appeared to have similar temperaments and you wondered if perhaps Matt was modeling his behaviour off of Kylo Ren in order to be more like him. It was only a theory though, maybe Matt just had a temper and there was nothing more to it.

  
Matt glared back at Hux in complete agitation, a look that in itself would have warranted a reprimand, but the General seemed to take no notice of it much to your confusion. If looks could kill, the General would most certainly be dead and you could not pretend to understand what the reason behind Matt's animosity towards Hux was. If you hadn't known any better, you would have thought that the pair were much more acquainted with one another than you had been previously led to believe.

"I don't know what you mean Hux." Matt replied through clenched teeth.

Anger rolled off of Matt in waves, he looked as though he was close to jumping clear over you and wrapping his large hands around the Generals slender neck in an attempt to throttle the smug, ginger man until the life left his eyes. You just hoped that he would calm the hell down and fast before the consequences of his insubordination mounted to the point that the General would ignore it no longer.

  
The General did not show the slightest bit of concern regarding the blonde mans growing temper, instead he gently tapped his fingers gingerly on your shoulder with a feel of impatience before stating calmly with his smooth, unfaltering voice,

  
"That would be General Hux, or Sir to you. It would seem as though you have forgotten your place, which is beneath me." Hux continued with a smirk," Not in the way that you would like though I am sure."

  
Not only was Matt seething with anger, to such an extent that his normally almost sickly complexion had taken on a reddish hue, his face now held a look of genuine confusion as he tried to figure out what the hell the General was talking about.  
Hux could see Matt's obvious confusion and chose to put the man out of his misery before his head exploded trying too hard to figure it all out.

  
"I am referring of course to the message you sent me earlier in the week, a message rather inappropriate in nature."

  
Understanding was quick to set in with the both of you after that and you gaped at Matt in utter shock and disbelief when you realised that you must have sent the message from his datapad and not your own. In his drunken stupor, Matt must have passed you his datapad, a mix-up which you would usually have found amusing, but in this case, it was far from funny. In a sense though, it was a form of poetic justice that Matt's plan to get you to embarrass yourself to the General had backfired onto himself, but it really was not the moment to enjoy that sweet irony of the situation.

  
You couldn't let it continue on any longer, as much as you hated the idea, you knew that it was time to come clean to the man above you before he pushed Matt just a little too far and the blond man ended up doing something he would later go on to regret.

  
Your voice was little above a whisper when the words left your mouth,"Sir, that wasn't from Matt. It was from me, he had nothing to do with it."

  
The grip on your shoulder tightened instantly at your confession and a harsh silence filled the dark corridor, the loudest audible sound was the persistent thump of your heartbeat in your ears. Your eyes dropped to the floor as you waited for the Generals reaction. Would he fire you right there? Would he openly reject and humiliate you? Would he have you dragged and thrown out of an airlock? The possibilities were terrifying and endless. And you had the misfortune to conjure many worst case scenarios in your head as you were on your knees below him, suffocating in the silence. Waiting for what seemed like an eternity for Hux to respond.

The weight was then lifted off of your shoulders as he backed off and moved away from behind you, letting out what sounded like a growl of annoyance, before he headed off in the other direction quickly, not saying a word to you. What the hell was that about? Was what you had done so bad that he couldn't even come up with a response? Or was he so beyond disappointed with you that he didn't feel he should waste anymore time on you? Whatever the reason, you were more worried now than you had been over the last couple of days.

You looked towards Matt for some kind of words of comfort, to ease your panicked mind, but you saw that he also chose to turn around and storm off down the corridor too, in the opposite direction of Hux. You didn't take it personally, you knew that the reason for him doing this was so he could go and blow off steam somewhere else so that he wouldn't end up snapping at you for no reason. You were actually pretty thankful that he had chosen to do that rather than stick around and watch you wallow in self pity. You felt utterly deflated, perplexed and concerned for your future on board the ship. It should not have hit you as hard as it had, you had known that what you had done would catch up with you eventually, but you hadn't prepared yourself to face the reality of it so soon.

 

* * *

 

 

  
You had been laying in your bed, tossing fitfully and getting severely frustrated with your continuous inability to get to sleep, when you heard your datapad bleep from your nightstand at the side of your bed. You sighed deeply and rolled over to grab it, welcoming the brief distraction from your own mind. You pressed the screen with your index finger, so that the so the screen lit up your dark room, causing your eyes to scrunch up from the intense brightness invading your heavy lidded eyes. The message alert was on the main window and you bit your lip with worry when you saw that the sender was Hux. You drew in a deep breath and it took you longer than you would have liked to admit to will yourself to open the message.

  
" Miss (F/N),

Report to my personal quarters at 19:00 tomorrow.

  
P.S.  
Be wary of the company you keep.

  
General Hux


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, it's been forever since I've written any updates for my works on here. I won't get into boring details and excuses, but lets just say it's been a hectic few months. Anyway, I'm back now and finishing my outstanding works, so hopefully you like the new chapter :) 
> 
> As always :  
> (F/N) -First Name  
> (L/N) -Last Name

The rather ominous and concerning message sent to you by the General would not leave your thoughts, no matter how much you willed it too. Every available moment, of which there were many, his ending words whirled around nonsensically in your mind as you desperately tried to understand them and their intended meaning. It was obvious, of course, as to whom the General had been referring when he had wrote, 'Be wary of the company you keep.' The vague, but no less alarming warning was directed towards your new and mysterious companion, the mild mannered, blond Matt.

You knew without giving it much thought, that there was a lot that you had still to learn about Matt, but that made you no less unconvinced that he was capable of inflicting any kind of harm towards you. A feeling deep in your gut told you that you could trust the man, you could not for the life of you begin to explain why that was, but you just sensed it. Yes, your companion's past was shrouded in mystery, he went as far as to wear a wig; perhaps to conceal his identity? None of this fazed you though, no matter how complex the situation, you could not help but feel safe and secure around Matt. This was probably stupid, you had only known the man for less than two weeks and any sensible person would have informed you that this was by no means enough time to construct a completely educated opinion of the trustworthiness of him, but you often disregarded popular opinion and went in your own direction. As much as you wanted to disregard the possibility completely though, you felt it would be only safe to give the intended accusation some merit, if only for arguments sake.

You attempted to the best extent that you could, to be unbiased when you weighed your argument in your own mind about the possibility of Matt being a potential threat to you. You sifted through your readily available evidence of the man's character, your own personal experience and considered each encounter with the blond thoughtfully. In your first meeting with him, he had been awkward and almost shy, his temper had shown for a couple of seconds, but had disappeared as quickly as it had come. Nothing to cause any alarm there. Next.

You thought of each dinner, lunch and breakfast conversation you had had with him, again there was nothing there to cause you any kind of unease. You had allowed Matt over to your personal quarters for a night of drunken chat and relaxation and, other than convincing you to make a complete fool of yourself to the General, nothing of consequence had occurred that night either. Well, aside from revealing to you his obvious taste for causing mischief, Matt had remained his usual, private, but pleasant self for the entirety of the evening.

The only event you could think of that had sparked any kind of nervousness in you whilst in the company of Matt, was when his temper seemed to quickly escalate during his very brief conversation with the General. However, it was not your own safety that Matt had caused you to become concerned about in the brief discussion, but rather Hux's safety.

Matt had the obvious physical advantage over the red-head if it came to a physical altercation between the two of them, but although he may be able to cause a bit of damage, a big part of you new that the General would most likely be victorious if such an occasion were to occur. He may not have been as tall as Matt, or possess the same physical strength as the larger man, but the General was smarter, more observant and would therefore always manage to remain a few steps ahead of his opponent. He was also the General of the First Order, Matt was a mere Radar Technician and so you doubted that Matt had anywhere near the ability in combat as Hux would have.

A fight between them was something you hoped you would never have to witness and even now you still couldn't begin to understand what possible reason the two of them had to act so hostile towards one another. It was something you were so eager to find out and yet a big part of you wanted to distance yourself as far away from the drama as possible. You felt as though during the passing of the heated words, Hux had been throwing fuel in the fire and as much of it as possible. It was as though he had been attempting to push the blond man to his limit and see how far he could get before Matt finally gave in and strangled him.

  
To give Matt his credit, even then he did not allow his temper to overtake him and instead opted for the better option of just walking away from the situation without a word, no doubt to calm down. Other than acting somewhat unprofessionally in the presence of his superior, Matt had actually behaved pretty damn well.

If the General should have been concerned about the behaviour of anyone on board, it should have been that damn Kylo Ren. For only a few minutes after the two men had left you confused and baffled in the corridor that day, the emotional man-child had used his freaky looking lightsaber to destroy an entire janitorial supplies closet only a corridor or two away from where you had been kneeling.

You hadn't seen the room for yourself yet, but the terrified chatter in the halls had managed to paint a pretty good picture for you. The man must have been beyond furious as the room was apparently destroyed beyond recognition, not one centimeter of it being spared his wrath as he left the room in a smoking and smoldering mess. This sort of thing happened almost every week and when it wasn't a room being destroyed, Kylo Ren took his rage out on members of staff too, leaving the lucky ones paralyzed, burned and comatosed and the not so lucky ones dead in a heap, like they were nothing more than disposable bags of flesh to do with as he pleased.

This was allowed to happen without consequence, the only precaution and safety provided to the staff to protect them from falling victim to the masked demon were the words, " Just stay out of his way." Which were no use to anyone really when the dark shadow rounded a corner and stalked in your direction and you had nowhere to run. This real threat and detriment to your safety was allowed to stalk around the halls freely and unchallenged and yet Hux decided that Matt was a problem! You just couldn't get your head around it at all, in fact the more you allowed yourself to dwell on this, the more pissed off you started to become with the redhead. 

Matt had been the only thing in the last few weeks that gave you any solace and freedom from the mundane rituals of your life, a life which had recently gone downhill considerably, which you blamed the General for. Perhaps this was just another way for him to punish you, maybe he saw your blossoming friendship with the blond man and did not feel as though you should be allowed such happiness in your life, that you had not yet suffered enough. Anything was possible, you knew very well that the General could be manipulative and cruel if the mood so took him. The ability to feel superior and in control of another beings life was a small pleasure which he occasionally liked to indulge and revel in. You didn't want to think that this cruelty could be directed at you though, but then again who were you to him that he would wish to spare you from such a thing? You were nothing more than a subordinate and very soon you might not even be that to him.

The thought of having to go to work straight before you were supposed to be joining the General in his private quarters no less, only added to your misery. Thankfully though, as you sleepily began to get ready for your shift that morning, a bleeping from your datapad directed you to a message from the head of your department, informing you that your services were not needed that day. A small sense of relief had washed over you for a few moments after receiving the message, it was one less thing you would have to deal with that day. Though the more you thought on it, the more you started to become a bit more concerned. Was the reason behind why you were not required today because you had been fired from the cleaning staff too? You had known that being summoned to the Generals quarters could not have meant anything good, but the reality of actually being fired had not really sunk in yet until that moment, you had been too busy worrying about your friendship with Matt to worry about the other pressing matters in your life.

At this point you couldn't kid with yourself any longer, you had known since sending that ridiculous message to the General admitting your lust for him, that your days on board the Finilizer were numbered. And, even though you had been exceptionally intoxicated upon sending the embarrassing message, a part of you was still very much aware of the consequences of your actions then. It was although you had been deliberately self sabotaging as a part of you was almost past the point of caring if you lost your job, it was a job you were no longer allowed to do and you had no passion for the job currently being used as your punishment. So, as much as you still wanted to be taken back in your old job as an Officer in Training, you no longer felt as energized and compelled to do it as you had been when you had first started out here. The dark side of life on the Finilizer had zapped a large amount of your enthusiasm.

You had never been to the Generals quarters before, they were way over on the other side of the ship, a part of the Finilizer you did not have clearance to get anywhere near. The higher ups were too good to be housed near the rest of the riff raff and you could only imagine that their sleeping conditions would be far superior to yours, although you had to say your quarters may have been small, but it more than met your needs. The idea of the thirty minute walk through the ship, going through security door after security door in order to meet with the man was vexing enough to you, you were fit as it was required for you to be so as part of your basic training, but you still hated the idea of unnecessary exercise. As if having to face the furious redhead wasn't bad enough, you had to physically exert yourself as well. It was just not your day.

You hadn't seen or heard from Matt since he had left you alone in the corridor yesterday, which you found quite odd. Any normal friend would have been concerned as to whether or not you had gotten into any kind of trouble after revealing what you had written to the General. Normal was something Matt was not though, but by now you were sure that even he would know that it is deemed the socially accepted thing to do to comfort a friend and try to assist them in their time of need. Even just a quick message on the datapad to check in with you so you at least knew that he was alright would have been enough to ease your nervousness. You wanted so desperately to talk to him about the warning Hux had given you, to see if he could shed any light on the ridiculous notion that he might indeed be some kind of threatening unstable person, but no such message came. You had tried to send him a message yourself, but you quickly realised you didn't even know the mans second name! The more you dwelled on it, the more you realised you didn't know. The extent of what you knew about the man could basically be summed up in four words ; Matt, a radar Technician. It was pathetic.

It dawned on you as you got yourself ready to meet the General, that you might not see Matt again, you could be forced to leave the ship straight away without so much as being given the courtesy of collecting your meager belongings and that was one of the best case scenarios. So you decided against your best judgement ( you weren't the cheesy and sentimental type) to leave him a note in your quarters, just in case something happened to you and Matt decides to come back to your room for whatever reason. You quickly pulled a sheet of paper from your nearest notepad and quickly scribbled a note in pen to your friend.

' _Dear Matt_ ,

_I'm not going to get all weird about this, I know it will make you feel just as awkward reading it as I feel writing it. I have no idea what will happen with the General today, I might have to leave without getting to say goodbye to you, so I guess this is me doing just that. The last few days have been great, when I first saw your dorky face invading my personal space I never would have thought in a million years I would eventually call you my friend and even dislike the idea of never seeing you again. You managed to make me smile when I wasn't sure I could, so for that I am grateful._

_And if you are reading this and I'm not getting fired/murdered at all, then please just forget everything you have just read._

_Anyway, keep yourself safe and stay out of trouble!'_

_(F/N) (L/N)_

Pleased with what you had managed to write, you placed the crumbled note in the middle of your perfectly made bed so that it would be unmissable to anyone that were to walk into your quarters and then proceeded to get ready.

You had considered wearing your old Officer uniform, but figured that doing so may vex the General more as you would technically be impersonating a person of a higher rank being as at the moment you were actually a janitor. You outright refused to stand in front of the General in your tattered, dirty cleaning jumpsuit, there was no way in hell that you were going to let that happen, even if it was your uniform and was most likely what he would expect you to show up in. Nope, at this point you really didn't care and instead opted to wear one of the few civilian outfits you had brought along with you when you had first started here. It was probably not in anyway appropriate to go in front of your General to what was most likely another kind of disciplinary meeting, in such casual attire, but you figured you had already screwed up so badly, this probably wouldn't make it that much worse.

You wore a knee length, figure hugging, but not indecently so, black dress. Which you had to admit complimented your figure nicely and along with it you wore a pair of black shoes with only a very slight heel, anything more may have looked much too dressy for a day on the Finilizer and would most likely have turned a few heads. To be honest though, you were going to be turning heads anyway, walking around the ship in a dress that highlighted each curve of your body beautifully, but you didn't care. You had already been the talk of the ship a few times, another time was not going to hurt you any and at least this time it would be for a more positive reason than all of the others.

* * *

 

You had deeply considered giving yourself some Dutch courage before leaving your quarters by having a few healthy measures of the strong spirits Matt had left behind from his last visit, but as appealing as the idea was, you figured it would be best to keep your wits about you when dealing with the General. Being wasted would surely dull the horrible mixture of feelings that were causing your stomach to leap and churn uncomfortably, but it would also make you more likely to say something that you shouldn't. Being nervous, embarrassed, pissed off and oddly excited about seeing him was taking it's toll on you and it was safe to say that by this point you were mentally exhausted. You just needed this whole thing to be over and to never again be the focus of his intense blue stare. Just the thought of his eyes on you, searching you with his calculating and disapproving glare made you feel more anxious than you had been before, being the sole focus of him even for a few minutes never got any easier. It seemed though that on some stupid unconscious level, you actually craved this negative attention from him, why else would you keep screwing up so badly? 

After what seemed like an entire lifetime, your Storm Trooper escort left you at the final door before Hux's quarters. Using a card to grant you access and without a word, he gestured for you to move forward down a narrow, dimly lit corridor with only one large security door a few hundred feet in the distance. The atmosphere was thick with your nervousness and the darkened surroundings seemed to you to be entirely menacing. Which no doubt was probably the point. Being summoned to the quarters of the General of The First Order should have been nothing but intimidating.

Other than the swooshing sound of the doors closing behind you (signalling that there was no turning back now, the only way was forward) the hallway was completely silent other than the persistent thudding of your heartbeat and the click-clacking noise of your heels against the smooth floor. There was nothing to distract you, to delay your meeting with the man by even a few welcoming minutes.You willed for anything to happen, even an imminent attack on the ship that would haul you away from having to face this awful experience that surely awaited you, but there was nothing, much to your dismay. So you drew in a shallow breath and pressed the buzzer by the side of the door and waited until the deceivingly amiable voice of Hux reached your ears.

"Miss (L/N), I'm glad to see that you are punctual. Do come in."

Instantly, the door opened with a low hiss and you hesitated for a few seconds before reluctantly stepping over the threshold and into his lair with the stature of what you could only describe as prey waiting to be mauled by the awaiting predator. But what a beautiful lair it was!

It made your already meager quarters look like a sad little broom closet. You had known that Hux was a bit of a snob, but you had not expected him to live so extravagantly, although everyone had their vices and you just discovered that having what was probably one of the best rooms on the ship was no doubt his.

Much to your relief, Hux was not lingering in the doorway as he had done so previously to greet you and you were thankful that the almost uncomfortable experience was not to be repeated again. You recalled last time practically having to dry hump him just to get past him and into his office.

Your heart was already extremely close to exploding in your chest and so that would have been the final straw that would have thrown you over the edge. Why did you have to be such a nervous idiot? You had always found pride in the fact that it took a lot to shake you and not many had managed to get past your normally tough exterior, when it came to the redhead however, you were about as tough as a timid mouse.

You stepped carefully into a massive living area, the room was so tall and seemed to stretch on for miles into a clear roof revealing an infinite sea of darkness littered with softly glowing stars and bright, burning planets. The room had no lighting except for a few candles and the light which the sky roof allowed. A pale and mystical glow from a nearby moon bathed the immaculate surroundings in a gentle light, bright enough so that you could see, but not so much that it ruined the magnetic calm of the dark.

As you had assumed, his taste in decor was very minimalistic, with very few pieces of furniture, paintings and ornaments adorning the large room, but this did not give it a cold and empty feel like you would have expected. Everything very much worked together, each odd sculpture, couch and exotic plant complimented each other entirely and dare you say it, your surroundings felt almost welcoming. Which was a pleasant, but rather shocking discovery, the dim glow of the light put you at ease to the point that you almost forgot where you were and what awful things may lie ahead in your future.

To your left there was a modestly sized crystal dining table which could seat about four people ( Hux seemed like the dine alone type, so you were not sure why it was necessary to have it ) and on the table burned a centerpiece comprised of four different sized red candles surrounded by beautiful white pebbles that had an almost ethereal glow to them. The orange flames flickered softly sending shadows dancing on the wall behind and the soft red wax dripped gently down the candles, pooling into a viscous puddle in the silver dish they rested on. He definitely didn't come across as a candle liking guy either, you figured he must be entertaining guests on your departure as to the reasoning behind his apparent need for mood lighting.

Dare you say it, the whole atmosphere struck you as rather romantic, but that was almost laughable when you thought about the man behind it all. Hux was many things, but a hopeless romantic surely wasn't one of them. Yes, he must be having a dinner party with some officials he has been instructed to impress to further the plait and maintain funding for the First Order, nothing else would make sense. Not in this universe anyway.

That too, would explain the delicious and warm scent of food permeating the cool air, you couldn't place what it was, but it sent your mouth watering and your stomach doing flips in excitement. The stress of the day had gotten to you so much that you had completely forgotten to eat and your furious stomach was not going to let you forget it now.

Well, that was until a lithe figure, clad in an expertly tailored black uniform came out of the shadows from another room and started to make his way leisurely toward you, his eyes locking with yours, but his face remained stoic and gave nothing away. This made your stomach instead do flips as a result of dread rather than hunger. You just about managed to stop yourself from muttering a few profanities under your breath at the sight of him, which was just as well as no doubt Hux had excellent hearing too.

His sharp voice broke the calm atmosphere." I was not made aware of the changes in uniform for our cleaning staff. I must say, I much prefer it, although I'm not so sure of it's practicalities." 

Did he just compliment you? Before you could dwell on what he had said for longer than a brief few seconds, he continued to approach you and stopped only a few feet in front of you. His taller form towering above you as he stared down at you with his cold blue stare, taking in every inch of your attire with an unreadable expression crossing his normally neutral face.

Feeling slightly uncomfortable and shifting nervously where you stood, you quickly broke the silence. "I apologise sir, it was entirely disrespectful of me to show up dressed like this." Not one part of you was genuinely apologetic for your choice of attire though, but it had seemed like the response he had been expecting. 

"Yes it was." He gripped your chin in one of his hands, not too roughly, but enough to make you hiss in surprise, and  then pulled your face upwards so that he could look into your eyes once more. Your lips trembled slightly now, no matter how much you tried to force them not to. He proceeded to run a gloved digit across your lower lip in an almost caring manner, as though he wanted to somehow ease your obvious discomfort.

The beautiful lighting in the room only helped to amplify the mans already apparent beauty, his marble skin had a glowing warmth to it, which was vastly different to the reddened colour it often seemed to turn from rage, something you had watched occur many times. No, right now he seemed calm and relaxed, almost content in a way just to look at you, but you knew that could not be so, something else must have been playing upon the mans complex mind and you were not certain that you wished to know what it was.

Before long, he snapped out of his thoughts and released you from his grip, before putting a bit more distance between the two of you and proceeded to clear his throat, obviously realisiing the lack of professionalism in his actions .

The man paced distractedly in front of you, still not seeming entirely like his usual self, his relaxed demeanor had slightly changed, but he still seemed more relaxed than his usual uptight self. "No matter, it has been done. By now I have come to expect a certain level of behaviour from you. It has been accentuated by your new friendship with the Technician."

You thought of sweet Matt, with his ridiculous glasses and messy blond wig and a feeling of protectiveness gripped you as it was suggested that he could be anything but good for you. Yes, he was a bit mysterious and mischievous, but he was also funny and a great guy, no one was going to convince you otherwise.

"I accept sole responsibility for my actions, Matt has nothing other than a positive effect on me." You stated bluntly through gritted teeth.

The General could sense your obvious agitation at the very idea that Matt was a poor choice as a friend, but continued to discuss the topic regardless.

"I am most positive that a good friend would have not only prevented you from making a fool of yourself, but would not have allowed you to find yourself in such a position to do so in the first place." He countered sharply, once again feeling the need to close the distance between you both, perhaps as a form of intimidation. You were not going to allow it to work this time.

"I do not wish to out step my bounds General, but why do you have such a vested interest in my personal friendship with Matt?"

This was something you were genuinely curious about, why did both men appear to loathe each other, why the hell did Hux care if you continued with your friendship? None of it made the least bit of sense to you.

It took Hux hardly any time to come out with his response and honestly it was exactly what you had expected to hear from him. It was a blunt. "I take an interest in my employee's personal affairs when they start to affect the efficiency of that employee's work." He almost glared at you, as though daring you to have believed for a second that it could have been anything else other than a professional interest.

You decided to respond using his own approach, remaining distant and professional.

"I fail to see how my friendship with Matt is jeopardising anything General. After you saw it fit to demote me and humiliate me, he was the only thing that kept me sane! It's as though you wish to crush my spirit entirely for your own amusement!" You turned away from the red head, seething with anger on the inside, but you were not about to let yourself show it on the outside. For the first time since meeting the General, you were able to keep your cool and you had to admit it felt great to see the disappointment flash across his face when he came to the realisation that he wasn't about to catch you off balance.

Regardless of this though, you still made your way over to the door to his quarters, very much prepared to leave with your dignity in tact. There was no way that this man was going to control your friendships, he may have set you back in your career, but he sure as shit wasn't going to stop you having contact with your idiot technician, you would sooner leave the First Order and become a scavenger on Jakku.

You did not get far, but you had anticipated as much, Hux was so rigid that he would hardly allow you to leave without having the last word. "Miss ( L/N )..." a gloved hand gripped your shoulder and spun you around until you were met by his almost bemused looking expression. He locked you in place by resting his other hand upon your hip, before continuing irritatingly calmly as though he was trying to subdue an unruly child.

"If it is your desire to continue your association with that man, then far be it from me to prevent you. I merely felt that it was my duty as your superior to warn you against such a decision. I shall say no more on the matter. I do not wish for you to leave just yet." Thankfully this time, he kept his distance from you, so you were able to maintain your calm exterior, even though you were a confused mess on the inside. Had you just won? As your superior, it was very much within Hux's power to stop you from seeing whoever he so wished, so why had he stopped objecting? Did he feel guilty for treating you so harshly these last few weeks? It was extremely unlikely, you were not certain that the General could empathise with someone. Maybe there was more to this man than he lead everyone to believe.

Him allowing you to continue contact with Matt only worried you further though, if he hadn't asked you there to stop you from seeing the technician, then he must have summoned you to discuss the humiliating and inappropriate message you had sent him. Your face turned an alarming shade of scarlet at the thought of having to explain exactly what had been going through your head when you had thought it was a brilliant idea to confess your attraction towards the man.

"General,  if it is not my association with Matt that is the reason for my being here, then why else would you have asked me to come to your quarters?" You had to admit, you were pretty concerned about what his answer could be and your throat became uncomfortably dry as you waited for his response.

The General walked you back inside, further again into the calming, moonlight bathed room, the whole time his arm did not leave your waist and if anything his grip on you only got tighter, as though he was concerned that you might run for the door again at any given time. Your anger from your conversation with the man had somewhat subsided, but the same curiosities still remained. Why the hell did the General hate Matt? And what the fuck were you still doing here, what did he want from you now?

"Come now Miss (L/N), you are a woman of relative intelligence...." Your head snapped around at that remark and you glared at his smug face, your hand that was hanging at your side was getting ready to move up and slap the ginger twat right across the face.

He smirked before continuing, ".....you are an intelligent woman, surely you can make an educated deduction from what you have observed so far?"

You attempted to play dumb, anything to avoid the elephant in the room, the ridiculous message drunkenly sent to the man from Matt's datapad. After a while of stalling, you found that  you couldn't take it any longer and decided it was best just to get it out of the way so that you could move on from the lingering embarrassment that threatened to permanently display a red shade on your face.

"You would like an explanation regarding the message I had sent you, General I....."

He held a hand up in front of you and cut your response short. " Miss (L/N), I do not require an explanation as I am able to come to an adequate conclusion for myself. Now please....reassess your surroundings and consider why I have summoned you here this evening." 

You looked towards the man feeling somewhat perplexed, but his almost friendly expression willed you to do as he instructed and so you tried to figure out what was going on for yourself. As far as you were aware, it was only the two of you in his quarters, perhaps that was a clue? Your eyes once again glanced over at the stunning dining table, but this time you became aware of a detail you had previously overlooked, there were two place settings. That in combination with what you had previously described as a romantic atmosphere, the smell of food cooking in the background and Hux's strangely calm and relaxed behaviour brought you to an alarming conclusion. Did the General of the First Order want to have dinner with you? The idea of that situation being possible was almost laughable to you, with any other man perhaps it would have been a reasonable conclusion to make, but Hux was far from a normal man and he sure as hell did not come across as a man who would invite a woman to dinner, especially not a woman who he seemed to believe was a clumsy and burdensome idiot.

You glanced over at him and quirked an eyebrow. " I have a theory, but it is an utterly ridiculous idea General. I fear I am reading the situation entirely incorrectly"

"I doubt that you are wrong on this occasion. Miss (L/N), as I recall, you requested that we eat in the same room sometime. A request that after some consideration, I found that I was glad to fulfill."

You had to do everything in your power to stop yourself from gasping audibly in shock. "So...what you are saying is that my message didn't repel you at all, in fact... it did the opposite?" Your mouth was slightly agape as you tried to process this new information. It was an unexpected curve-ball that he had just thrown at you, you had been positive for a long time that you did nothing but annoy the man and get under his skin, but apparently this was not the case. It was not although you didn't have anything going for you, you were an attractive woman who was pretty smart and funny, so you had appeal. You just hadn't imagined that you appealed to him, or that anyone appealed to him for that matter. He had always come across as rather robotic to you, a man who could not understand emotions and therefor did not feel the need to pursue another being in a romantic capacity, it seemed you had been wrong about him.

You reflected back quickly on all the stress the day had caused you and how all of this could have been prevented if he had just accepted your offer by sending you a message, again though, Hux was a complicated man and so you didn't pretend for a minute to understand his thought process. "I apologise if I come across as rude , but if you wanted to accept my offer of a date, you could have just told me. You made me worry for no reason!"

His voice had taken on an almost soft tone now. "I excel in most areas, but this is entirely new to me. I am aware I could have approached it better. I hope to try and rectify my mistakes, which is why I have asked you here. To answer the question you had sent me previously, yes I do like to eat and I accept your invitation to eat in the same room sometime. Sometime being right now, if that is acceptable?"

"Um yes General, that is acceptable."

A smile pulled at his lips, it was a small one, but it was a smile nonetheless. 


End file.
